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

[ddi666]

where can i edit the dcb tables in a bin file from a nvidia mxm card or with what program can i do that

 

[rtowner75]

were you able to sleep with high Sierra?

I think so... after swapping out the card I didn't stay with High Sierra long. I don't remember any issues though. pretty sure I noticed the sleep issue almost immediately.
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ok... I think I am making some progress. I can confirm that open core is helping and making a difference. hardware encoding appears to be working now as I can now play certain video files now that were unplayable when not using open core, also frame rates are now doubled in unigen heaven test.

still unable to sleep and wake without a crash. The computer now successfully goes into "sleep" and will try to "wake" on keypress, but somewhere after the keypress and machine starts trying to "wake" it crashes and restarts. then this restart is not using open core so I have to force shutdown and manually restart holding option to invoke open core

any thoughts?

 

[Vego17]

I'm not an expert in this, but I think you may have the adapter board connected to the incorrect section of the usb programmer. From what I have seen elsewhere on this forum and online (here is a video link

), the adapter board should be in the 25XX pin connectors on the usb programmer. From your picture, it appears yours is in the 24XX pin connectors. See the video for clearer explanation. I am only basing this off the fact that I have yet to see any video or pictures showing a video card being flashed with the adapter board in the 24XX connector position.

Well the same thing happens for the 25XX, I through that maybe my laptop is giving too little of a juice so i bought brick powered usb hub, but that doesn't help at all :/

 

[jborko]

I think so... after swapping out the card I didn't stay with High Sierra long. I don't remember any issues though. pretty sure I noticed the sleep issue almost immediately.
[automerge]1591549909[/automerge]
ok... I think I am making some progress. I can confirm that open core is helping and making a difference. hardware encoding appears to be working now as I can now play certain video files now that were unplayable when not using open core, also frame rates are now doubled in unigen heaven test.

still unable to sleep and wake without a crash. The computer now successfully goes into "sleep" and will try to "wake" on keypress, but somewhere after the keypress and machine starts trying to "wake" it crashes and restarts. then this restart is not using open core so I have to force shutdown and manually restart holding option to invoke open core

any thoughts?

For the sleep I would install (not OC inject) sandy bridge sleeping kext’s prepared by highvoltage12v as well as the AppleGVAFramework (for the hardware decode capabilities). Good job with the WX7100 making it work.

 

[jborko]

Well the same thing happens for the 25XX, I through that maybe my laptop is giving too little of a juice so i bought brick powered usb hub, but that doesn't help at all :/

I believe you are missing a jumper on the programmer.

Check these 3 thing:

 

[Vego17]

I believe you are missing a jumper on the programmer.

Yeah I was trying to run it with or without jumper with no results.

EDIT: It seems that swapping the position of the board that connects to the programmer DID work, however when i tried to write old bios on the chip i got error so i had to erase the chip and then upload the vbios. It seems that everything is okay so I will test it now.

 

[jborko]

Yeah I was trying to run it with or without jumper with no results.

EDIT: It seems that swapping the position of the board that connects to the programmer DID work, however when i tried to write old bios on the chip i got error so i had to erase the chip and then upload the vbios. It seems that everything is okay so I will test it now.

Red marked cable into position 1 and position one on the jumper side. Also red cable on the clip into the dot marked pinof the eeprom.

If that won’t work in windows, then perhaps try flashrom in from Linux (i am not sure there is flashrom for windows.

 

[racegen]

It seems to be an ApplegraphicsControl.kext problem. Which version of Catalina?

Post 7008

Thank you for that post. I misunderstood it the first time I read it.

I‘m running Catalina 10.15.5 and patched the right kext from your post and blocked the AppleGraphicsDevicePolicy. This time brightness control was working for 20 seconds after login, then black screen. Do I have to put in the details from your other screenshots?

 

[highvoltage12v]

were you able to sleep with high Sierra?

Are you booting with Open Core? If yes use AppleSNBframebuffer in the "AMD" folder if NOT booting with OpenCore then use the stock AppleSNBFramebuffer.
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I think so... after swapping out the card I didn't stay with High Sierra long. I don't remember any issues though. pretty sure I noticed the sleep issue almost immediately.
[automerge]1591549909[/automerge]
ok... I think I am making some progress. I can confirm that open core is helping and making a difference. hardware encoding appears to be working now as I can now play certain video files now that were unplayable when not using open core, also frame rates are now doubled in unigen heaven test.

still unable to sleep and wake without a crash. The computer now successfully goes into "sleep" and will try to "wake" on keypress, but somewhere after the keypress and machine starts trying to "wake" it crashes and restarts. then this restart is not using open core so I have to force shutdown and manually restart holding option to invoke open core

any thoughts?

You deleted the original Config.plist and then Named the AMD config.plist to config plist. When booting OpenCore now your iMac will think it's an iMac Pro, it won't display this in About This Mac. also want to confirm you did not enable any additional Kexts in OpenCore Configuration tool. Lastly the Kexts all need to be installed to System/Library/Extensions with Kext Utility, after unlocking the Partition with Hackintool. If you skip this Kext it may appear the Kexts are installing, but never will. Finally since booting with OpenCore the AppleSNBFramebuffer.kext needs to be replaced with the Stock one that is normally installed.
For a sanity check Open System Profiler and check to see if the Kexts are installed in the Extensions category. They should also be marked as loaded.

 

[Vego17]

Red marked cable into position 1 and position one on the jumper side. Also red cable on the clip into the dot marked pinof the eeprom.

If that won’t work in windows, then perhaps try flashrom in from Linux (i am not sure there is flashrom for windows.

Yeah, that windows program is a mess really. That said I can confirm that WX7100 which wasn't working in any way in my iMac(both with original and flashed vBios, resets of SMC etc.) works perfectly fine in Dell Precision 7710.

 

[jborko]

Yeah, that windows program is a mess really. That said I can confirm that WX7100 which wasn't working in any way in my iMac(both with original and flashed vBios, resets of SMC etc.) works perfectly fine in Dell Precision 7710.

Can you take GPU-Z screenshot in Windows?

 

[highvoltage12v]

Does anyone here have this specific iMac Configuration: 2011 21.5" iMac with a k2100M (maybe k1100m?/K610M) And notice that performance in Valley benchmark is about half (Score:667) in Catalina as what it should be in Mac OS High Sierra?(Score:1208)

I'm modifying AppleGraphicsPowerManagement.kext which fixed my issue, but I want to make sure I'm not the only one with this issue before releasing anything. My scope of action was to null out the entry for iMac 12,1 which is still present in 10.15.5 AGPM and changing the board ID from the 2013 iMac, to the 2011 21.5" iMac. I then swapped the Device ID for the 650M to the k2100M I could also add K1100M or K610M if anyone here speaks up about the issue.

The issue only seems apparent if using an Nvidia Card with a 2011 21.5" iMac based on my testing. I'm also not using WhateverGreen/Lilu to check for this issue.

 

[protocold]

Ok i have came across K610M (N15M-Q2-B-A1) with a different part number 745325-001 which is different than 785225-001 (what jowaju posted). Is this a concern?

 

[r6mile]

Hi everyone,
I managed to install and flash my K2100M, and install OpenCore. It's still not always booting straight into MacOS and showing me the below error, but that's not a huge deal.

'Error: Already started returned from Opencore.efi", after which I am greeted with the OpenCore selection where I must click"Boot macOS from Macintosh SSD".

(Although if someone has a way to fix this for good I would be grateful!)

The problem now seems to be Target Display Mode, which is crucial as I use my iMac as an external monitor for my work PC. I can switch into Target Display Mode using Cmd+F2, but I can't seem to reliably be able to switch back out to the iMac. Literally nothing happens when I press Cmd+F2 again. If I just unplug the Mdp cable it goes back to the iMac, so again it's not an enormous problem, but it would be great if someone knows a way to restore this functionality.

 

[Vego17]

Can you take GPU-Z screenshot in Windows?

Before and after installing drivers:

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi everyone,
I managed to install and flash my K2100M, and install OpenCore. It's still not always booting straight into MacOS and showing me the below error, but that's not a huge deal.


(Although if someone has a way to fix this for good I would be grateful!)

The problem now seems to be Target Display Mode, which is crucial as I use my iMac as an external monitor for my work PC. I can switch into Target Display Mode using Cmd+F2, but I can't seem to reliably be able to switch back out to the iMac. Literally nothing happens when I press Cmd+F2 again. If I just unplug the Mdp cable it goes back to the iMac, so again it's not an enormous problem, but it would be great if someone knows a way to restore this functionality.

Please go back to the first page and first post and read there. @herrdude added a short "how to use OpenCore guide" and it is linked from there.
Target Display Mode will only work with High Sierra. Please add your complete hardware and software config to you signature, nobody has a glass ball to guess

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

Before and after installing drivers:

Which WX7100 bios are you using? I use WX7100_GOP bios.

 

[r6mile]

Please go back to the first page and first post and read there. @herrdude added a short "how to use OpenCore guide" and it is linked from there.
Target Display Mode will only work with High Sierra. Please add your complete hardware and software config to you signature, nobody has a glass bar to guess

Apologies for not describing my setup. I am using a 27" 2010 i7 iMac under High Sierra. I followed @herrdude's guide to install it the first time. I re-did the steps a second time, and it seems to have fixed the first issue about booting - I do get a black EFI screen for about 0.5 seconds saying something like 'loading options' but then it immediately boots into MacOS, so that's fine.

However, I am still unable to switch out of Target Display mode without removing the MDP cable. This is not a dealbreaker (you'd have to do that with an external monitor anyway), but am wondering if there is a way to fix this.

 

[Rhino_60]

Hi to all,
after several initial difficulties I've replaced my old CPU and graphic card on my iMac 21.5 mid 2011 with an i7 CPU and a K2100M graphic card.
Now my question is related to a problem that occurs after updating OS software (on my iMac still running original OS High Sierra 10.13.6 and WIN7 in Bootcamp partition).
In details after sw upgrade download, system automatically requires reboot, and it will creates a new disk called "MacOS Installer" that try to install a new OS system...
In order to avoid this, I shut down system (holding rear power button) and reboot system holding ALT button, in this way I can reboot choosing correctly the system disk.
Once the system is rebooted I must change "Boot Drive" from "System Preferences" with the original disk ones but in this way the upgrade will be removed.
Has anybody have the same problem ? .... And eventually a possible solution ?
Thanks!

 

[Fourk]

Hi guys,

So I installed the Xeon and it’s working in the AHD like a charm. But I have a small question:
I have the EFI Version 1.71 but the higher available is 1.9. Does it makes a big difference? is there any way to install it without MacOS X Lion ? And if not where I can get it ? I have Lion on my account but can’t download it with my MacBook or similar devices.

The next step is to replace th GPU with the R9 M290X which arrives tomorrow. Stay tuned!

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Does anyone here have this specific iMac Configuration: 2011 21.5" iMac with a k2100M (maybe k1100m?/K610M) And notice that performance in Valley benchmark is about half (Score:667) in Catalina as what it should be in Mac OS High Sierra?(Score:1208)

I'm modifying AppleGraphicsPowerManagement.kext which fixed my issue, but I want to make sure I'm not the only one with this issue before releasing anything. My scope of action was to null out the entry for iMac 12,1 which is still present in 10.15.5 AGPM and changing the board ID from the 2013 iMac, to the 2011 21.5" iMac. I then swapped the Device ID for the 650M to the k2100M I could also add K1100M or K610M if anyone here speaks up about the issue.

The issue only seems apparent if using an Nvidia Card with a 2011 21.5" iMac based on my testing. I'm also not using WhateverGreen/Lilu to check for this issue.

I have now the very same hardware config and can confirm your weird result, but I have it with both versions of the MacOS in the same way:

iMac 12,1 i5@2,5GHz, K2100M, 4GB memory, SSD & HDD

High Sierra latest (base, only 10.13.6 Apple installer package used):
Valley 13.4 FPS / 560 Score

High Sierra latest (June 2020 update included):
Valley 13.4 FPS / 560 Score

Catalina 10.15.5 (OpenCore, first run without any additional extensions, later all sleep extensions including Lilu and Whatevergreen installed on disk to /S/L/E, sleep and Airplay working)
Valley 13.3 FPS / 557 Score

Reason seems to me that the CPU is throttled down the same way as with an deinstalled LCD and missing thermo sensor, I used the HW Monitor to check the CPU core frequency, it was locked on the base 1.58GHz. I checked the cables internally twice...

If you check the uploaded K2100M valley scores in iMac 2011 21.5" systems it becomes pretty clear that this seems to be general problem, not only yours or mine
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Hi guys,

So I installed the Xeon and it’s working in the AHD like a charm. But I have a small question:
I have the EFI Version 1.71 but the higher available is 1.9. Does it makes a big difference? is there any way to install it without MacOS X Lion ? And if not where I can get it ? I have Lion on my account but can’t download it with my MacBook or similar devices.

The next step is to replace th GPU with the R9 M290X which arrives tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Later you will use OpenCore with the AMD card (got get a boot screen) and you will need in any case the most recent firmware to enable APFS boot and uses the Catalina Booter etc.

Use the time and update your system to High Sierra - when applying all the patches the system will get the latest firmware upgrade, too.

Add you system and project to your personal signature, so we can keep track what your are doing

 

[spacebiscuit]

Hopefully this is not considered as highjacking this thread. But anyone know if this card is good for a mid-2011 iMac:

Card is: NVidia Quadro K1100M N15P-Q1-A2 1GB GDDR5 but says it is for HP Zbook 17 G2.

If comaptiable will it be a straight swap?

Thanks!

 

[r6mile]

Hopefully this is not considered as highjacking this thread. But anyone know if this card is good for a mid-2011 iMac:

View attachment 922526

Card is: NVidia Quadro K1100M N15P-Q1-A2 1GB GDDR5 but says it is for HP Zbook 17 G2.

If comaptiable will it be a straight swap?

Thanks!

The answer you seek is, as always, on the first page.
In short: it looks like it will be compatible, but you'll need to flash and OpenCore to restore bootscreens and functionality.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hopefully this is not considered as highjacking this thread. But anyone know if this card is good for a mid-2011 iMac:

View attachment 922526

Card is: NVidia Quadro K1100M N15P-Q1-A2 1GB GDDR5 but says it is for HP Zbook 17 G2.

If comaptiable will it be a straight swap?

Thanks!

First page, first post of this thread...check it out and read yourself

 

[spacebiscuit]

Thanks - a Google search brought me to the middle of the thread - everything I need to know is way back there on page 1 as suggested. Will get reading