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

[Ausdauersportler]

Thanks! How I did the update from 15.4 to 15.5 and maybe help others:

1) Download the latest Dosdude patcher (thanks @dosdude1 )
2) Download the latest full version of Catalina through the patcher
3) Choose Install to this Machine
4) Patcher will notice additional available updates and suggest to install
4) That's it, takes about 20 minutes to complete

I however did have two things: the brightness was stuck to about half brightness although saying it was on 100% and the Intel QuickSync was disabled again. I had this as well with the second iMac I fixed and this issue was resolved after installing the Sandybridge kexts which I still had to do at that point (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/post-27899047). So I did these steps again and now everything is working properly again, although I don't know if this has any consequences installing the same kexts over the previous ones.

Edit:
To be exact; I use OpenCore with every kext in there enabled except for Lilu and WhateverGreen since they are installed along with the Sandybridge and QuickSync kexts/framework with the post of @highvoltage12v I link to above

A reinstall using any of @dosdude1 patcher overwrites the Sandy Bridge extensions @highvoltage12v described and collected in his post. So you have to reinstall them after any upgrade.

To keep track of them you may tag them with a red color like I did and sort the content of /Systems/Library/Extensions by tags - learned this from @Pascal Baillargeau .

This is true for the single private framework AppleGVA.framework to be installed into /Systems/Library/PrivateFrameworks , too.

BTW: 10.15.5 works fine with AMD cards, too. Checked this last night.

 

[bokkow]

Thanks for the nifty little trick, will put tags on these

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

A reinstall using any of @dosdude1 patcher overwrites the Sandy Bridge extensions @highvoltage12v described and collected in his post. So you have to reinstall them after any upgrade.

To keep track of them you may tag them with a red color like I did and sort the content of /Systems/Library/Extensions by tags - learned this from @Pascal Baillargeau - if you do not find the tags after an update the changes are gone, again.

This is true for the single private framework AppleGVA.framework to be installed into /Systems/Library/PrivateFrameworks , too.

BTW: 10.15.5 works fine with AMD cards, too. Checked this last night.

Tags stay even if kext is overwritten, it's useful to search for a kext set easily.

 

[cirnolol]

I have an iMac 27 mid 2011 and replaced an HD6970m with a GTX780M and had the same symptoms as you. The 780m would only work on external screen.

With internal screen connected. 1st diagnostic led lights up and on pressing the power on button the fans would spin for a few seconds then nothing, no other LEDs lit up, screen blank, no chime, no noise from ODD. Took it apart and carefully checked everything connected, GPU card correctly seated in its socket. In the end I gave up and sent the 780m back.

With the 780m and external screen I also had poor results with Unigine Valley score 1170.

I had same problem after upgrade to 780m. The answer had been found in 2 hours in some random forum. I don't remember complete solution now, but the main part is: plug off power cord, press power button, keep pressing and plug on power cord, keep press until gong.

 

[cyberheater]

Do you have to use Dosdude patcher to upgrade from 15.4 to 15.5 or can you just do the normal Apple upgrade?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Do you have to use Dosdude patcher to upgrade from 15.4 to 15.5 or can you just do the normal Apple upgrade?

I did the patcher upgrade, because I do it all time this way. You may check out the upgrade path and report, please

 

[cyberheater]

I did the patcher upgrade, because I do it all time this way. You may check out the upgrade path and report, please

Okay. Will do. Just need to back up first.

 

[Antônio Nicola]

Hello guys, I'm trying to install Catalina using dosdude1 patcher but I can't, I formatted the ssd for APFS, the installation starts and hangs when it's four minutes to finish, the new 770m gpu is installed, will I have to put the amd gpu original to be able to make the patch?

I also tried to restore the system using cmd r but I am also not getting it, at the end of charging, a message appears saying that I need to turn the Mac off and on.

will it be because of the new gpu installed?

iMac 21.5 mid 2011 - i5, 16GB, SSD 500GB, GTX770m (Flashed with Beta3 vBios rom by Nyck)

 

[nikey22]

The following is the DisplayPort pinout on the MXM video cards. There are 4 displayport outputs possible and each has 4 lanes of information. Pay special attention to these areas of the card to make sure there isn't a break or dirt accumulation on the contacts:

 

[Antônio Nicola]

Hello guys, I'm trying to install Catalina using dosdude1 patcher but I can't, I formatted the ssd for APFS, the installation starts and hangs when it's four minutes to finish, the new 770m gpu is installed, will I have to put the amd gpu original to be able to make the patch?

I also tried to restore the system using cmd r but I am also not getting it, at the end of charging, a message appears saying that I need to turn the Mac off and on.

will it be because of the new gpu installed?

iMac 21.5 mid 2011 - i5, 16GB, SSD 500GB, GTX770m (Flashed with Beta3 vBios rom by Nyck)

EDIT1 - I inserted the original AMD GPU back in place, I'll try to install with Catalina Patch.
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EDIT1 - I inserted the original AMD GPU back in place, I'll try to install with Catalina Patch.

EDIT2 - Even with an original GPU, I can't install Catalina using dosdude1. It gave error at the same time as the previous one. You will try to solve the problem or macOS with the cmd + r command.

 

[Antônio Nicola]

EDIT1 - I inserted the original AMD GPU back in place, I'll try to install with Catalina Patch.
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EDIT2 - Even with an original GPU, I can't install Catalina using dosdude1. It gave error at the same time as the previous one. You will try to solve the problem or macOS with the cmd + r command.

EDIT3 - cmd + r works fine with original AMD GPU.
marcOS is being installed in the Lion version, I'll try it again using the dosdude1 Catalina patcher. Do I need to modify anything before starting the process or do i just follow normally?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I would have used the recovery to install latest supported MacOS (High Sierra), upgrade the firmware to latest version, then convert to APFS and then install Catalina additionally in one container.

 

[sparky720John]

The following is the DisplayPort pinout on the MXM video cards. There are 4 displayport outputs possible and each has 4 lanes of information. Pay special attention to these areas of the card to make sure there isn't a break or dirt accumulation on the contacts:

View attachment 920407View attachment 920408

Which cards would this be in reference too? would this cause issues of not properly powering up systems or cards failing to work properly ?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Which cards would this be in reference too? would this cause issues of not properly powering up systems or cards failing to work properly ?

Scroll back and search the thread. The MXM docs are public and have been posted twice, here. Indeed some of us are guessing that the usage of some (unspecified) pins may cause the missing post in 2011 iMacs of some cards known to work in 2009/2010 systems. BUT: Since we do not know if your specific card works at all it is all just even more guessing.

We do not know if the unsuccessful attempts documented here are caused by bad cards or non standard MXM slot usage...except the @jborko case. There I got it working in one 2009 model.

The best way to check things out systematically is having more than one system, at least one 2009/2010 and one 2011 and probably a Dell Precision 7720 to check the WX7100 in it's native habitat.

 

[cyberheater]

My Mac is reporting that 10.15.4 is the latest version available using the Software Update tool. In the App Store it reports that the requested version of macOS (10.15.5) is not available.
I don't want to go the dosdude1 route. I want to try out the normal update method so I guess I'll wait.

 

[sparky720John]

Scroll back and search the thread. The MXM docs are public and have been posted twice, here. Indeed some of us are guessing that the usage of some (unspecified) pins may cause the missing post in 2011 iMacs of some cards known to work in 2009/2010 systems. BUT: Since we do not know if your specific card works at all it is all just even more guessing.

We do not know if the unsuccessful attempts documented here are caused by bad cards or non standard MXM slot usage...except the @jborko case. There I got it working in one 2009 model.

The best way to check things out systematically is having more than one system, at least one 2009/2010 and one 2011 and probably a Dell Precision 7720 to check the WX7100 in it's native habitat.

that would be ideal if i could get a dell precision for cheap working,

 

[Ausdauersportler]

My Mac is reporting that 10.15.4 is the latest version available using the Software Update tool. In the App Store it reports that the requested version of macOS (10.15.5) is not available.
I don't want to go the dosdude1 route. I want to try out the normal update method so I guess I'll wait.

To get the SW update working you have to patch your catalina system, again! Check out this thread... The @dosdude1 patcher just overwrites the system files. But you may add a new container and install the system newly there to test before upgrading your production system.

 

[sparky720John]

Does anyone have any cards for sale, from the group? that are willing to sell ?

or any recommendations or where to source the better cards to try? Im steering more to the AMD but alas we only have two is there any Nvidia cards that are at least 4gig?

I know its a little guessing but if apple takes out all the nvidia drivers with the next os would that be hurting us all or will that be an easy fix with say Dosdudes patcher to correct?

 

[ZenSurfeur]

I may have a k1100m 2Go flashed and full functional

 

[stephengrenfell]

The following is the DisplayPort pinout on the MXM video cards. There are 4 displayport outputs possible and each has 4 lanes of information. Pay special attention to these areas of the card to make sure there isn't a break or dirt accumulation on the contacts:

View attachment 920407View attachment 920408

There is also the PCI-E, power and system management connections that are needed for the GPU card to work correctly, pretty much most of the MXM connecter interface needs to be making a good electrical contact in reality.

If its useful. Attached are the pinouts of the 2011 logic board MXM connector from the Apple schematics.

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I had same problem after upgrade to 780m. The answer had been found in 2 hours in some random forum. I don't remember complete solution now, but the main part is: plug off power cord, press power button, keep pressing and plug on power cord, keep press until gong.

OK, thanks useful to know.

 

[NOTNlCE]

There is also the PCI-E, power and system management connections that are needed for the GPU card to work correctly, pretty much most of the MXM connecter interface needs to be making a good electrical contact in reality.

If its useful. Attached are the pinouts of the 2011 logic board MXM connector from the Apple schematics.

Thank you for these. I have a copy of the 2010 documentation for the A1312 and the pinouts are identical. The only difference is that the 2011 machines use a separate power rail, PP12V_S0_MXM for the MXM 12V power and the 2010s use PPV_S0_MXM_PWRSRC. I'll dig through and see if I can find more clues.

 

[Berenod]

I may have a k1100m 2Go flashed and full functional

Where are u located? USA or mainland Europe?

 

[roscho]

It's a good news, it's not a hardware problem.

(I think you mean 'GPU clock')

Avoid to reach the GPU thermal limit is necessary here. As heat build up GPU throttle down trying to stay within power limits and animation become choppy, stuttering. I changed thermal paste two times before succeeding to avoid this problem.
Be sure to put K5 generously to fill the gaps between ram chips, VRM chips and heatsink. For the GPU thermal paste i ended up using GC-extreme Gelid, which works very well. Grizzly’s Kryonaut paste is recommended too on first post.
To be short, especially with these cards (WX7100, GTX780M) we need to evacuate the more heat we can.

On software side, with Macs Fan Control, for instance, you can index HDD and ODD fans on GPU heatsink readings.
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It's a headless framebuffer.

Sorry for my late reply,

I managed to lock me out of Catalina quite effectively. Got the idea that performance could be better without OC due to potential Kext redundancies - guys, never pull off the OC Stick without adjusting Startup disk before...
I ended up booting in Kubuntu endlessly, still do not completely understand the mess, mayby Kubuntu tried to be helpfulistalling hybrid mbr or messing aryound with fw. No chance using Option Key blindly, disconnecting internal disks and plugging them in after booting OC, messing around with OC EFI Shell, refind.conf etc.

Took me several days to figure out to:
1. Create Catalina Installer again via dosdude Patcher on externel TB SSD
2. Change EFI Boot Order from within Linux with: efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sde -p 2 -L "Catalina Install" -l "\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi"
3. Change Next Boot Efivar by: efibootmgr -n 2
4. sudo reboot
5. wait considerably for Catalina installer to load
6. Set Startup Disk to Catalina Loader (OC) again

Maybe this saves someone some headache...

I can confirm now, that thermal limits were only an issue under linux in my case, as the mbpfan service does not support listening to GPU heatsink readings, so ODD fan being stuck at min RPM, leading to thermal issues under linux. Anyway, the GPU clock went up to nearly 1200 MHz.

Under Catalina , I have Macs Fan Control installed since SSD Upgrade (config as suggested by Pascal), no thermal issues- Temp barely reaches 50°C.

Unfortunately my performance problems are still not resolved, as GPU clock is stuck at 300MHz in Catalina.
Any ideas?

Regards,

roscho

 

[ZenSurfeur]

Where are u located? USA or mainland Europe?

France

 

[stephengrenfell]

Thank you for these. I have a copy of the 2010 documentation for the A1312 and the pinouts are identical. The only difference is that the 2011 machines use a separate power rail, PP12V_S0_MXM for the MXM 12V power and the 2010s use PPV_S0_MXM_PWRSRC. I'll dig through and see if I can find more clues.

If it's usefull. The MXM power voltages / distribution is derived as follows.

From the MXM connector schematic in my previos post. The PP3V3_SO_MXM, PP5V_S0_MXM, PP12V_S0_MXM_PWR, PP12V_S0_MXM_SNS and PP12V_S0_MXM, are grouped with other load rails as per these two schematics.

PP5V_S0 and PP3V3_S0 are each power limited by a IRFH3702TRPBF power mosfet.

The sources of PP5V_S0 and PP3V3_S0 (PP5V_S3_REG and PP3V3_S5_REG) are voltage regulated by pair of FETS controlled by a ISL62383 PSU contoller IC.

PP12V_S0 comes directly from the PSU's 12V supply, but is controlled / power limited by a SLG5AP026 Gate Driver and FET.

Also attached is the overall power scheme for the Main Logic Board. There are (max) Amperes mentioned for the MXM voltages, but as described the current limitations are collective - the are no specific power limitations for the MXM only voltages.