iM 4,1-14,4 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade

[roscho]

Before you flashed the card what was the behavior with precedent bios installed by Falchris?

As far as I recall, the screen stayed black during boot and in OS.
But maybe I'll try and flash it back...

 

[MikkelF]

Correct permissions on AppleGVA: (It cannot hurts)
.....
Play a h264 video with VLC.
Open Activity monitor.
search for VTD
Open every VTD instance.
Look at files and open ports on each
You should see hardware decoder presence.

Permissions were ok. There were some extended quarantine attributes that I removed...and rebooted.
I also removed Lilu+Whatevergreen from OC and installed them instead just to rule that out (now OC only injects 3 FakeSMC kexts).

I found three VTDecoderXPCService processes during H.264 playback in VLC with the following open files&ports.
Is that what I should expect?

cwd
/
txt
/System/Library/Frameworks/VideoToolbox.framework/Versions/A/XPCServices/VTDecoderXPCService.xpc/Contents/MacOS/VTDecoderXPCService
txt
/Library/Preferences/Logging/.plist-cache.wT0bAvJC
txt
/usr/share/icu/icudt62l.dat
txt
/usr/lib/dyld
txt
/private/var/db/dyld/dyld_shared_cache_x86_64
0
/dev/null
1
/dev/null
2
/dev/null

Could I perhaps get a copy of your config.plist?
I suspect that something in mine is off. It could be anywhere and maybe it would payoff to check up on everything.

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

As far as I recall, the screen stayed black during boot and in OS.
But maybe I'll try and flash it back...

And core was throttling, do you remember?

 

[roscho]

And core was throttling, do you remember?

Unfortuately not, as I logged in via screensharing from my macbook, but did not perform any testing at that time.
Anyway, you motivate me quite effectively to test it right now

 

[ich558]

got my 780m just after 6 days from china

but my imac just reboots every 10 seconds. does anyone know what this causes?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I understand what you mean, but i want to remove doubts concerning this. I don´t have the money right know believe it or not for the k1100m. Is my objective achievable so to speak?

Everything what has been documented in the guide and posts is achievable unless you get a broken card or you miss the ability to install the hardware and software.
Just go ahead and buy this card if you are happy with it. We will not make your buying decisions.

 

[roscho]

And core was throttling, do you remember?

Reflashed the BR22573.001 Bios from TheFalChris, unfortunately the same behaviour and GeekBench results, only without Screen due to wrong Framebuffer.

Struggling to catch the linux usb boot stick blindly right now...

 

[Ausdauersportler]

got my 780m just after 6 days from china

but my imac just reboots every 10 seconds. does anyone know what this causes?

Could you please add hardware and software config to your signature, we are not good at guessing
System completely installed?

The complete boot takes a minute and the graphics is initialized at the end, probably you have an overheating or a short or a badly prepared heat sink getting contact to the cards components?
You see, I am guessing...

Everybody has a smart phone, please take pictures of the card before, the preparation of the sink, the installation of the card, etc.

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

Reflashed the BR22573.001 Bios from TheFalChris, unfortunately the same behaviour and GeekBench results, only without Screen due to wrong Framebuffer.

Struggling to catch the linux usb boot stick blindly right now...

There is something you can try.
I use a kext injected by Opencore which restore core throttling after sleep for WX7100. This kext is modded for two cards for now: 0x67DF and 0x67C0. Maybe you can give it a try.

 

[roscho]

There is something you can try.
I use a kext injected by Opencore which restore core throttling after sleep for WX7100. This kext is modded for two cards for now: 0x67DF and 0x67C0. Maybe you can give it a try.

Thanks for this suggestion, I already read the RadeonBoost thread and injected the stock RadeonBoost kext trying to resolve the performance issue, forgot to mention that.

Unfortunately, your patched kext did not work for me either, although my card is 0x67C0.
Normally it should suffice to drop the kext into /EFI/OC/Kexts right?

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

Thanks for this suggestion, I already read the RadeonBoost thread and injected the stock RadeonBoost kext trying to resolve the performance issue, forgot to mention that.

Unfortunately, your patched kext did not work for me either, although my card is 0x67C0.
Normally it should suffice to drop the kext into /EFI/OC/Kexts right?

Kext must appears selected in kernel section too, to be loaded at boot.

 

[Berenod]

Sounds like he's wondering if the cards benchmark very differently in 2009 vs 2011 machines.

That's been my experience, but I chalked it up the the difference between the cpus, i7@2.8ghz vs i7@3.4ghz.

Ik think the cpu capability has a lot to do with how the gpu's bench/perform, especially on the first generation i cpu's.

I have a 2010 27" originally with the i5-760, upgraded the gpu with a gtx780m and it benched pretty poorly (still a lot faster then the original AMD gpu) .

After upgrading the cpu to the max (i7-870), gpu performance increased dramatically.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Something is not right...Hackingtool now reports that VDA is fully supported.
But Videoproc and MacX Converter claims there is no hardware support.

Installing the kexts instead of injecting them speeded up booting a lot which is nice.
I did however not install Lilu+WhateverGreen because some of the guides here claim that they cause issues when booting with OpenCore - so I still inject them with OpenCore.
Maybe I have misunderstood something - should I install them too and stop injecting them?

Could something else be wrong in the plist file?

The warning of installing vs. injection is important only to long time users having installed WEG and Lilu already on disc.

You cannot install and inject at the same time, boot will fail. This is true for other extensions, too.

You might also download the latest versions of Lilu and WEG and check this. Here injection is nice because you do not need to rebuild the kernel.

Get a second SD card and do the changes there and keep one stable known to work version - you will regret having no such backup during the test marathon.

Please make a signature and add your hardware and software config - it is a pain getting all info from a bunch of pictures from several posts distributed over a lot of pages...

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Ik think the cpu capability has a lot to do with how the gpu's bench/perform, especially on the first generation i cpu's.

I have a 2010 27" originally with the i5-760, upgraded the gpu with a gtx780m and it benched pretty poorly (still a lot faster then the original AMD gpu) .

After upgrading the cpu to the max (i7-870), gpu performance increased dramatically.

The 780M has a TPD of 120W, the iMacs are designed to cool 75W.

I am pretty sure all iMac vBIOS versions are undervolted/downclocked to reflect this physical constraints.
Same will be valid for the WX7100.
On the same 2011 machine I get the same valley scores with 2500S, 2400, and 2600 CPU having a K2100M.

But I agree that the first 2009/10 systems with i3 are probably lack of CPU power.

Currently I max out another card in one 2011 and I see boosted or at full speed running i5-2400 CPU all the time with valley.

But do not forget, this is a OpenGL benching limited probably at some point by the OpenGL MacOS implementation, too.

We are interested in getting metal support...
[automerge]1590227214[/automerge]

Thanks for this suggestion, I already read the RadeonBoost thread and injected the stock RadeonBoost kext trying to resolve the performance issue, forgot to mention that.

Unfortunately, your patched kext did not work for me either, although my card is 0x67C0.
Normally it should suffice to drop the kext into /EFI/OC/Kexts right?

No, you have to edit the config.plist kernel section manually. The name of the kext in this section must match the name in the EFI/OC/KEXTS folder.

            <dict>
                <key>BundlePath</key>
                <string>RadeonBoost.kext</string>
                <key>Comment</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>Enabled</key>
                <false/>
                <key>ExecutablePath</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>MaxKernel</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>MinKernel</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>PlistPath</key>
                <string>Contents/Info.plist</string>
            </dict>

 

[roscho]

Kext must appears selected in kernel section too, to be loaded at boot.

Good to know, thank you Pascal !

No, you have to edit the config.plist kernel section manually. The name of the kext in this section must match the name in the EFI/OC/KEXTS folder.

Interestingly, I was able to add the Kext via OpenCore Configurator directly via "Browse" in the Kext section.
It appeared in the config-plist in the correct format as stated by you.

Anyway, the result is not really reassuring, performance became even worse with RadeonBoost!
GPU and MemClock behaviour stayed the same, though.

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

Good to know, thank you Pascal !



Interestingly, I was able to add the Kext via OpenCore Configurator directly via "Browse" in the Kext section.
It appeared in the config-plist in the correct format as stated by you.

Anyway, the result is not really reassuring, performance became even worse with RadeonBoost!
GPU and MemClock behaviour stayed the same, though.

View attachment 917981
View attachment 917982
View attachment 917983
View attachment 917984

Too bad, at least we tried!
[automerge]1590231060[/automerge]

Too bad, at least we tried!

What could be interesting is testing this card in windows10 or a linux distribution to compare results with the ones you have on MacOS. This way we'll know if it's a software problem or a hardware problem.

 

[RRPC]

I think that there are some other parts that need to be taken into consideration

±095W - i7 2600
±030W - LogicBoard
±010W - Memory Sticks x4
±009W - SSDs x3 (more for HDD)
±006W - Fans x3
±030W - Inverter Board/Display (at Max brightness)
±130W - WX7100 (at Heavy Usage)
====================
±300W

I also compared several PSU from 2011 27' models and all appear to have the same PSU model PA-2311-02A.

So I am developing my thoughts further. I am thinking that the problem is not a stable sustained power but a potential peak in the current, that might trigger some sort of OverCurrent Protection on the PSU or the Logic Board. If you look at the power supply specification, it can support maximum 25.8A current (which again is logical because P=VxI, and V being constant 12V). Since this is DC, we can take that V=12V remains constant, so the peak in the current can be caused only by a short (R=0) or a component with very low resistance somewhere on the 12V line (R<0,5 Ohms) (since I=V/R => P=V²/R). Which might mean a lot of things but in simple terms most probable cause will be some dead component on the card.

Maybe too deep, and unnecessary calculations, but if you look at all the available cards this one has highest TDP and very small power margin that you can work with.

Thermals are different thing too... Perhaps there is a limit to that too, so perhaps connecting/disconnecting thermal sensors could help to fool the thermal protection of the system (though difficult to say if it is worth to risk it)...

Yes, but you talk about the maximum current ldrawing of all components. Then you have maybe maximum 10watts headroom. And it's good to think about it.

As said. And promised I'm having a power meter plug. And I have stick it between the imac's and the mains.
With start up the imac pulls 100watt.

With GTA 5 at full resolution.
189 watts.
Imac 2011
I7 2600
32gb ram
1tb HDD.
LCD at Max
AMD 6970

I think is best to say that we don't have a power issue, but just cards that are faulty, or have a short circuit.
I mean, Pascal have a working setup. So power consumption is, as far I can measure via my plug, is not with boot a issue.
Is maybe not the root case, it can give a problem with full load. As I see with my test run with GTA 5.
The peak that is captured is 211 watt.
Of course, I am measure what the imac PSU is pulling out the grid.
And not the current that the PSU have to deliver.

But it's good, IMHO that we are take the power consumption as maybe a problem.

 

[cyberheater]

Look what has arrived. Wish me luck.

 

[ich558]

Could you please add hardware and software config to your signature, we are not good at guessing
System completely installed?

The complete boot takes a minute and the graphics is initialized at the end, probably you have an overheating or a short or a badly prepared heat sink getting contact to the cards components?
You see, I am guessing...

Everybody has a smart phone, please take pictures of the card before, the preparation of the sink, the installation of the card, etc.

Its a 2011 27" with i7. Works fine with the original 6970m.

- the imac keeps restarting when a drive with high sierra is installed (internal and external makes no differenz)
- without a drive it just stays on with fans on full speed
- than i flashed the card over ssh
- when i plug in a drive and hold the "alt" key i have a black screen with backlight on (so flashing the card worked) but no choose of any drive. just a empty screen. the same with "alt" and "r"
- a normal start without holding any key just as bevor always rebooting in short time invervals where the backlight is not even turing on

thats the card i ordered

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[roscho]

Too bad, at least we tried!
[automerge]1590231060[/automerge]

What could be interesting is testing this card in windows10 or a linux distribution to compare results with the ones you have on MacOS. This way we'll know if it's a software problem or a hardware problem.

You're absolutely right and I appreciate your help and suggestions.
Running Linux again is tempting (had SuSE installed on that machine years ago),
and also upgrading my Bootcamp from Win 7 to Win 10 or at least an additional Win 10 partition would make sense to me.

Unfortunately my Bootcamp (Win 7) is somewhat messed up.
By trying to change MBR to GUID in my Bootcamp Win7 some time ago, I rendered it unbootable (Parallels still works though).

Furthermore I don't understand DiskUtility / MacOS partitioning well.

After installing Catalina next to High Sierra and the messy Bootcamp I ended up with 2 APFS containers, 1 physical volume for data ("Daten") and the Bootcamp partition.

Right now, I don't manage to create space for an additional Win 10 or Linux partition...
Ideally I would like to consolidate all those partitions, e.g. Merging the "Daten" partition with one of those APFS containers, as I understood that resizing volumes within containers is much easier. I just don't know how to do...

Finally, also my DVD drive is broken - do you know a nice Linux live distro, which can be easily installed to / run from a thunderbolt SSD?

 

[Fernando Cardone]

Did you tried a 6970m reflow already?

Yes my friend i tried it twice without success. I´ve being wandering if the bars error could be another fault, I switched rams one at a time to see but no luck. I´ve read something about replacing the battery but really don´t think so, i´ll try it anyway.
[automerge]1590245534[/automerge]

Everything what has been documented in the guide and posts is achievable unless you get a broken card or you miss the ability to install the hardware and software.
Just go ahead and buy this card if you are happy with it. We will not make your buying decisions.

I´m not happy really and not searching for buying decisions. I asked and pointed some doubts about the installation, the heatsink mod or confirmation if the plan would work....

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

You're absolutely right and I appreciate your help and suggestions.
Running Linux again is tempting (had SuSE installed on that machine years ago),
and also upgrading my Bootcamp from Win 7 to Win 10 or at least an additional Win 10 partition would make sense to me.

Unfortunately my Bootcamp (Win 7) is somewhat messed up.
By trying to change MBR to GUID in my Bootcamp Win7 some time ago, I rendered it unbootable (Parallels still works though).

Furthermore I don't understand DiskUtility / MacOS partitioning well.

After installing Catalina next to High Sierra and the messy Bootcamp I ended up with 2 APFS containers, 1 physical volume for data ("Daten") and the Bootcamp partition.

Right now, I don't manage to create space for an additional Win 10 or Linux partition...
Ideally I would like to consolidate all those partitions, e.g. Merging the "Daten" partition with one of those APFS containers, as I understood that resizing volumes within containers is much easier. I just don't know how to do...

View attachment 918039

Finally, also my DVD drive is broken - do you know a nice Linux live distro, which can be easily installed to / run from a thunderbolt SSD?

If you have a thunderbolt SSD free you can use this windows7 installer or this small linux distribution for instance or install windows10 via virtualbox on a real disk. And do BootCamp installation with this Post.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Right now, I don't manage to create space for an additional Win 10 or Linux partition...
Ideally I would like to consolidate all those partitions, e.g. Merging the "Daten" partition with one of those APFS containers, as I understood that resizing volumes within containers is much easier. I just don't know how to do...

View attachment 918039

This needs some manual work...first you have to delete (all) the unused free partitions/containers and then merge...

 

[cyberheater]

It not workie

2 green LEDs. I think that means that communication to the graphics card isn't happening.

 

[nikey22]

** NVIDIA Quadro K610M Mac edition ROM **​

K610M:
The chip I used to develop the ROM is: N15M-Q2-B-A1
MXM-A (3.0) bus interface, low powered card at TDP 30W.
It is a drop-in fit for the 21.5" iMac and 27” iMac heatsinks.
It is based on the GK208 GPU Kepler 2.0 architecture.
Metal supported.


I put this together only because there are now a few members on here that have one and it is relatively cheap to purchase for the moment.
I have not had a chance to test it fully, but I can confirm brightness control will work with Opencore implementation on High Sierra 10.13.6. It is based on Nick[D]vb's ROMs, credits to him.
Bootpicker menu is also available ofcourse.

I've noticed that brightness is not set correctly when using the Opencore platform:

<key>DeviceProperties</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Add</key>
        <dict>
            <key>PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)</key>
            <dict>
                <key>@0,backlight-control</key>
                <data>AQAAAA==</data>
                <key>@0,built-in</key>
                <data>AQAAAA==</data>
            </dict>
            <key>PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x3,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)</key>
            <dict>
                <key>@0,backlight-control</key>
                <data>AQAAAA==</data>
                <key>@0,built-in</key>
                <data>AQAAAA==</data>
            </dict>
        </dict>
        <key>Delete</key>
        <dict/>
    </dict>

The first <key> PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0) is made up of the Root PCI Bridge, the 1st PCI Device node and 2nd PCI Device node.

The second <key> entry is similarly encoded for the 2009/2010 machines.

Correlating this with the IO reg entry:
in 2011 models:
IOACPIPlane:/_SB/PCI0@0/POP2@10000/GFX0@0
in 2009/2010 models:
IOACPIPlane:/_SB/PCI0@0/POP2@30000/GFX0@0

I suggest the following changes:
delete the entire second key below for those of you with a 2011 machine:

<key>PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x3,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)</key>
            <dict>
                <key>@0,backlight-control</key>
                <data>AQAAAA==</data>
                <key>@0,built-in</key>
                <data>AQAAAA==</data>
            </dict>

This cleared up the brightness issue for me.

Insanely Great!
-Steve Jobs



******
UPDATE
******
02/06/2021
-minor rom changes, improved speed, TDP: 1097Mhz, boost: 1202Mhz, Mem:1600Mhz
-working on Catalina 10.15.7 2011 iMac 21.5"
-working on Catalina 10.15.7 2009 iMac 27"

07/15/2020
- working on Catalina 10.15.3 2011 iMac 21.5"
- no internet recovery
- working on Catalina 10.15.X 2009 iMac 27" (Ausdauersportler)