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

[Ausdauersportler]

Hey guys! Big thanks to everyone who made these upgrades possible! I successfully upgraded mine to a 780m but the GPU heatsink temps seems a bit high at idle and wanted to compare them with the rest of you. I have the optical drive removed, maybe that is the issue? I also have an issue with connecting a second display, it doesn't work in MacOS but it works in Windows weirdly enough. Any advice please?

Update: Doing a PRAM and SMC reset seems to have solved the high GPU temps for now but i still have the issue with the second display not working in MacOS.

The current vBIOS version of the 780M lacks of brightness control and over time the full running LCD (watch the LCD proximity sensor data showing 60+ degrees) heats up the environment inside. There is no way around than let the display sleep whenever possible, installing a dying light solution or waiting for @Nick [D]vB to come back, soon. He announced to work on a solution, i.e. a new vBIOS version. Do not ask for a time line
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Hello everyone. I was recently gifted a non-working 2011 iMac with a completely wiped HDD and no OS installed. The person that gifted it to me said the GPU is faulty. I am getting the flashing ? folder icon once I boot it up. After trying the Internet Recovery mode, I am just getting a black/grey screen, which leads me to believe that the GPU is indeed faulty. As a result, I am looking to upgrade the GPU on this machine as frugally as I can.

I found a relatively cheap K610M on ebay, and it is currently in the mail. I will attempt to flash the GPU with nikey22's custom VBIOS. I am planning on purchasing the following kit from Amazon in order to flash the GPU with my Windows PC.

Is this the proper kit for this particular chipset (the K610M)? Also does anyone know which chip to attach the clamp to, or how I could figure that out? I have never done anything like this and I do not want to mess it up. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

The clip is always the best solution because you get a working card from the beginning. Otherwise you can always check the Linux USB stick flash method - you just have to copy the K610M vBIOS additionally to the subfolder flash and follow the instructions - take a look at page one and post one and the links.

 

[phonetappa]

The clip is always the best solution because you get a working card from the beginning. Otherwise you can always check the Linux USB stick flash method - you just have to copy the K610M vBIOS additionally to the subfolder flash and follow the instructions - take a look at page one and post one and the links.

Thanks so much for your reply. I have read the post on the first page and the additional links, including a video on how to use the CH341A module. However, even after watching the video, it is still not clear to me which chip on the K610M to attach the clip in order to flash it. The video features a GeForce 9500 GT and shows a number of different chips that the clamp could fit onto. Maybe I am missing something, but I am unsure how the individual in the video chose which of the chips to flash. Do you or anyone else know how I would go about doing this for the K610M?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

There is only one chip on the K610M which looks like a BIOS chip with 8 legs...you will not miss it. Have you tried to find a picture of the K610M in the web?

 

[phonetappa]

There is only one chip on the K610M which looks like a BIOS chip with 8 legs...you will not miss it. Have you tried to find a picture of the K610M in the web?

Thank you!! I looked at some pictures but they were a bit too grainy to make out. As I mentioned before, still waiting for the K610M to arrive in the mail, but figured I would ask around nonetheless. Thank you so much.

 

[Skytracker]

The current vBIOS version of the 780M lacks of brightness control and over time the full running LCD (watch the LCD proximity sensor data showing 60+ degrees) heats up the environment inside. There is no way around than let the display sleep whenever possible, installing a dying light solution or waiting for @Nick [D]vB to come back, soon. He announced to work on a solution, i.e. a new vBIOS version. Do not ask for a time line
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The clip is always the best solution because you get a working card from the beginning. Otherwise you can always check the Linux USB stick flash method - you just have to copy the K610M vBIOS additionally to the subfolder flash and follow the instructions - take a look at page one and post one and the links.

Thanks for the reply! I am waiting patiently for the new bios update.

Do you have any input on why MacOS does not recognise the second display but Windows does?

 

[caxias_Brazil]

I spent some time last week changing out one of my kids 21.5" 2010 iMac video cards for a K1000m. I'll write up a detailed post later on in the week, but in the meantime I used the Winclone idea posted here earlier by FlorisVN to make a package installer Windows 7 Bootcamp so there is no need to install Winclone or do any other trickery. It requires 10.12 Sierra to begin, and it simply adds the bootcamp image to your internal hard drive on a 15GB partition it creates. Teamviewer has been installed, and the NVtools folder is on the desktop with the flash rom files ready to go. Also the Page file and Hibernate file have been pared down to 2GB each to avoid running out of space at 15gb. No bootcamp drivers were loaded to maximize portability. I tried this on a 2010 iMac 21.5 as well as a 2011 iMac 27" and they both worked perfectly for simply creating the bootcamp partition to use for flashing purposes. I also uploaded it to Sync which has unlimited downloads so it shouldn't expire or be pulled if it gets popular. Here's the link to download it, simply unzip the .pkg file and run it in MacOS 10.12 or higher.

Windows 7 Bootcamp pkg installer iMac

Unfortunately it didn't work for me.
I'm using High Sierra 10.13.6


Information about my disk:




iMac-de-Saulo:~ saulojosemcunha$ diskutil list


/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):


#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER


0: GUID_partition_scheme *512.1 GB disk0


1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1


2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 495.8 GB disk0s2


3: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 16.1 GB disk0s3





/dev/disk1 (synthesized):


#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER


0: APFS Container Scheme - +495.8 GB disk1


Physical Store disk0s2


1: APFS Volume HighSierra SSD 253.2 GB disk1s1


2: APFS Volume Preboot 23.5 MB disk1s2


3: APFS Volume Recovery 512.0 MB disk1s3


4: APFS Volume VM 20.5 KB disk1s4

 

[dnarna]

I do not want to start a holy war here, but I believe you do not need the copper plates on the VRAM. The K2100M draws approximately 50W, will not be overclocked and should be fine with the normal K5 pro/Artic MX-4 or whatever is the most recent product.
To back this up one should measure the thermal conditions with and without these plates and compare it. Lately I just tend to do the paste thing better to have better thermal flow into the heat sink. This is likely the queens way....

Thanks for your input. I ordered one K2100m which ended up not coming, refund, ordered another, and finally received it. I cleaned and installed it in iMac 2011 27" with High Sierra without thermal paste or heat sink, just to see if the diagnostic LEDs would turn on. I only get 1 and 2... no 3rd LED (communicating with GPU).

- Will the third GPU LED come on without flashing the VBIOS, or does the lack of illumination likely mean the card is faulty?

- I was under the impression that High Sierra did not require flashing the card, at least until a recent update? This is running an older point update I thought, but I can check if that is pertinent.

Thanks!

 

[GreppMichaels]

Issue fixed!

 

[e-tip]

Hi folks, i've just received my k2100. now waiting for K5 and grizzly thermal paste and then i'll switch my card.
In an mxm-a card should i use the grizzly in the gpu and the k5 in the vram chips, no more things to cover.
so in this image attached the green one is the grizzly and the blue one are the k5. did i miss something ?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thanks for your input. I ordered one K2100m which ended up not coming, refund, ordered another, and finally received it. I cleaned and installed it in iMac 2011 27" with High Sierra without thermal paste or heat sink, just to see if the diagnostic LEDs would turn on. I only get 1 and 2... no 3rd LED (communicating with GPU).

- Will the third GPU LED come on without flashing the VBIOS, or does the lack of illumination likely mean the card is faulty?

- I was under the impression that High Sierra did not require flashing the card, at least until a recent update? This is running an older point update I thought, but I can check if that is pertinent.

Thanks!

You need the card flashed to get the 3rd. LED - having two indicates at least a working card.
Do not do this free hanging experiment with bigger cards, they overheat even without a screen output and the system switches off. Probably you only fry a card this way.
Even High Sierra needs a proper vBIOS and nobody knows if the card still has one on board, now!

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi folks, i've just received my k2100. now waiting for K5 and grizzly thermal paste and then i'll switch my card.
In an mxm-a card should i use the grizzly in the gpu and the k5 in the vram chips, no more things to cover.
so in this image attached the green one is the grizzly and the blue one are the k5. did i miss something ?View attachment 924501

Take a look here for a general approach and avoid contact of the coils (square parts) with the sink. The K5 is isolating, too. So I put K5 on the coils, too.

 

[dnarna]

You need the card flashed to get the 3rd. LED - having two indicates at least a working card.
Do not do this free hanging experiment with bigger cards, they overheat even without a screen output and the system switches off. Probably you only fry a card this way.
Even High Sierra needs a proper vBIOS and nobody knows if the card still has one on board, now!

Thank you. That makes sense but I wasn’t entirely sure. I don’t have one of the separate programmers so with it installed in the computer my best bet is to use the Linux USB prepared on another computer? If the computer was running with the original card (albeit intermittently) I could use the windows partition method, correct?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thank you. That makes sense but I wasn’t entirely sure. I don’t have one of the separate programmers so with it installed in the computer my best bet is to use the Linux USB prepared on another computer? If the computer was running with the original card (albeit intermittently) I could use the windows partition method, correct?

Install the card on a heatsink, disconnect all internal drives, plug in the USB Linux flash stick, boot and wait. Access the machine remotely from another system on your local LAN via SSH and follow the instructions written down in the post describing the Linux flash method. I am just repeating again what has been written there. Follow the written guide
You have to boot the iMac with the Linux USB image!

 

[dnarna]

Install the card on a heatsink, disconnect all internal drives, plug in the USB Linux flash stick, boot and wait. Access the machine remotely from another system on your local LAN via SSH and follow the instructions written down in the post describing the Linux flash method. I am just repeating again what has been written there. Follow the written guide
You have to boot the iMac with the Linux USB image!

Super, thank you! Those steps are all doable

 

[dn325ci]

Hi folks, i've just received my k2100. now waiting for K5 and grizzly thermal paste and then i'll switch my card.
In an mxm-a card should i use the grizzly in the gpu and the k5 in the vram chips, no more things to cover.
so in this image attached the green one is the grizzly and the blue one are the k5. did i miss something ?View attachment 924501

Glad you're asking this - I'm in a similar point in time with k2100m arriving today.

Hey, I have some of this on hand. Can I use this on the GPU and VRAM, or no? Also, I have not cleaned up the stuff originally on the heatsink. I was just planning to clean that off unless there is another approach.

 

[dn325ci]

Nevermind. I think this Artic Silver stuff I have is OK. I was just checking what the Amazon description of it says, and it says it is "Not electrically conductive". With silver in the name I was concerned. Thanks.

 

[ZenSurfeur]

Vram > You better use K5 pro compound or thermal pad

 

[dn325ci]

Vram > You better use K5 pro compound or thermal pad

OK. I was just reading back through the thread on this. Question: whatever the compound was on the vram before from Apple I have not cleaned off the heatsink. Obviously better to use new but I don't have anything handy. This old stuff is still a bit malleable and a bit sticky. Will that work?

 

[dn325ci]

OK. I was just reading back through the thread on this. Question: whatever the compound was on the vram before from Apple I have not cleaned off the heatsink. Obviously better to use new but I don't have anything handy. This old stuff is still a bit malleable and a bit sticky. Will that work?

Nevermind again. Stopped in the computer repair shop nearby and they had some thermal pads they just gave to me. I think I'm set to rebuild this thing tonight.

 

[xanderon]

hi again

so finally I upgraded my iMac (see my sig) to 3TB and K2100M and installed a totally fresh 10.15.5 dosdude (no auto patch, unticked also Wifi Patch because of BCM swap). Finally good Temps around 65° on the Power Heatsink with native Brightness Control.

no I have some problems:
- can't get Catalina Loader (4GB SD Card, MBR, JHFS+) to be the default loader
- don't know how to setup default boot of Macintosh HD in OpenCore Configurator after 1 sec delay
- can't get sleep to work, despite injecting the needed kext with Catalina loader (see screenshot)

any help ?

also for Valley Benchmarks: please add a screenshot with the settings or describe them better: fullscreen? AA off? Quality? Preset?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

hi again

so finally I upgraded my iMac (see my sig) to 3TB and K2100M and installed a totally fresh 10.15.5 dosdude (no auto patch, unticked also Wifi Patch because of BCM swap). Finally good Temps around 65° on the Power Heatsink with native Brightness Control.

no I have some problems:
- can't get Catalina Loader (4GB SD Card, MBR, JHFS+) to be the default loader
- don't know how to setup default boot of Macintosh HD in OpenCore Configurator after 1 sec delay
- can't get sleep to work, despite injecting the needed kext with Catalina loader (see screenshot)

any help ?

No screenshot and no idea because all this works for me using the same iMac model, same graphics card, same MacOS version, including sleep, excluding Unlock - have no Apple Watch. Have to check the temps with Valley on a longer run, but I assume it should be below 60 - this is a guess. Will come back later with a number.

EDIT: After half an hour of Valley the temps are below 50, 47-48 on average. ODD fan ramped up to 1750 rpm...
(27" 2011, i5-2400, 10.15.5, K2100M)

 

[xanderon]

forgot the shots. please see above. valley windowed, 1208 points and 28.8 fps. temps at 70° for heatsink from 66°
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[Ausdauersportler]

OpenCore Installation Guide (yet another version)

@Pascal Baillargeau, @highvoltage12v and me were trying to make another guide to install the OpenCore with AMD and Nvidia cards. We did this in particular because the handling of kernel extensions is so different for AMD and Nvidia systems, especially when using a mid 2011 model which has constantly sleeping problems.

I add here a draft of this guide, it is not complete, and not error free, and recently @Pascal Baillargeau found yet another way to configure the AMD systems to have sleep, HEVC and H.264 acceleration at the same time. The three of us spent weeks in figuring out how to handle the OpenCore boot loader in the best way to reach that goal.

Nvidia users will get sleep and H.264 acceleration provided by the Intel iGPU installing the extensions to the disk - OpenCore injection does not work here.

We did not mention each and every detail of OpenCore, and currently most pictures are shots from one of my lab systems using the German language - hope you will find the necessary information.

Edit:
06/18/2020: First update posted and PolarisBoost extension added, fan control section added
07/01/2020: some errors corrected
07/20/2020: clarification on sleep extension for 2011 models
07/24/2020: dropping sleep extension sections 11-13 and linking to this post (makes guide short), left a summary of terminal commands for unix experienced users
07/26/2020: deleting sections 11-13 and some stuff about RadeonBoost

 

[dn325ci]

Got the K2100M put in, did the bootable linux ssh routine to flash the vrom, connected the existing High Sierra SSD, and I'm typing this note to you now on my re-incarnated 2011 iMac. Almost can't believe it worked.

The hardest part was fitting the new card. The apple xbrace was so ill-fitting that I wasn't comfortable trying to make that work, so I went the route of drilling out the Dell xbrace. Not fun. My approach felt a little "unprofessional" and janky, but hey, here I am and it worked.

The flashing routine had a few steps where I was questioning what I was doing (like typing in the right ROM file within terminal. The README instructions are written like it's in the flash root directory by they are in another directory) and I'm an SSH newbie. But I figured it out.

Overall, very happy to have my iMac back! Thanks so much to @herrdude (who I think answered all my inquiries here) and the community who made all this possible. You guys are incredible. Cheers!

 

[herrdude]

Got the K2100M put in, did the bootable linux ssh routine to flash the vrom, connected the existing High Sierra SSD, and I'm typing this note to you now on my re-incarnated 2011 iMac. Almost can't believe it worked.

The hardest part was fitting the new card. The apple xbrace was so ill-fitting that I wasn't comfortable trying to make that work, so I went the route of drilling out the Dell xbrace. Not fun. My approach felt a little "unprofessional" and janky, but hey, here I am and it worked.

The flashing routine had a few steps where I was questioning what I was doing (like typing in the right ROM file within terminal. The README instructions are written like it's in the flash root directory by they are in another directory) and I'm an SSH newbie. But I figured it out.

Overall, very happy to have my iMac back! Thanks so much to @herrdude (who I think answered all my inquiries here) and the community who made all this possible. You guys are incredible. Cheers!

Next on your list upgrading the WiFi/Bluetooth card