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

[kral84]

This is probably the overkill - even the faster K2100M is not really burning more than 30W heat, less than half of what the original 6790M was using. You can safely assume that each MXM A heat sink will work.

BUT: You have to use the Mac Fan Control or something similar. The SMC is not reacting on the available sensor data, the GPU die temperature is still missing.

any chance to implent SMC chip?so that we don't need to control the fans?...thx

 

[FlorisVN]

Pascal and Ausdauersportler - Thanks for the help last Sunday. I removed my High Sierra hard drive and discovered the file system had become corrupted. After repairing it, I booted my MacBook Pro from it to make sure it would boot correctly and then I reset the remote login and screen sharing. Then I put it back into my 2011 27" iMac and attempted to boot from it.

Unfortunately, I am still getting the black screen on startup. HOWEVER, I am now able to SSH in from my other Macs. Through this, I was able to obtain the following images which show that the video card is properly recognized as a WX7100.
View attachment 925348

Additionally, I verified my boot rom is 87.0.0.0.0 (see below)
View attachment 925349

As a reminder, the High Sierra system has not been updated since last July so it does not have the May 2020 update on it yet. And I have confirmed the video card is functional in my iMac via booting from a Ubuntu Live USB drive.

I have not yet tried to go through OpenCore (hoping to get the screen to work in HS working without OC).

Any other suggestions would be welcome. I am thinking of trying to update the OS to Mojave and giving that a try. I do not intend to upgrade this iMac beyond Mojave due to several applications I use that are not supported in Catalina. What do you think?

Again, appreciate all the help!

I think you also need a modded AppleGraphicsControl.kext .
Since recently it seems also High Sierra can have black screen isseus, have you tried this fix.. ?

On our iMac's with GTX765M and High Sierra, we can have a 50/50 chance of a black screen these days, withouth using an modified AppleGraphicsControl.kext

 

[FlorisVN]

curious if anyone has been successful in getting sidecar to work on your 27" with the wx7100 card?
I seem to have everything else working fine now except this. I can connect my iPad via bluetooth and handoff and airdrop are working, airplay is selectable and when I select my iPad I get this error: "A miscellaneous error occurred (-455)"

Any ideas?
thanks in advance!
Robert

perhaps this fix might help.. :

GitHub - ben-z/free-sidecar: Enable Sidecar on Unsupported iPads and Macs running iPadOS 13 and macOS Catalina

Enable Sidecar on Unsupported iPads and Macs running iPadOS 13 and macOS Catalina - ben-z/free-sidecar

github.com

let us know..

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

Pascal and Ausdauersportler - Thanks for the help last Sunday. I removed my High Sierra hard drive and discovered the file system had become corrupted. After repairing it, I booted my MacBook Pro from it to make sure it would boot correctly and then I reset the remote login and screen sharing. Then I put it back into my 2011 27" iMac and attempted to boot from it.

Unfortunately, I am still getting the black screen on startup. HOWEVER, I am now able to SSH in from my other Macs. Through this, I was able to obtain the following images which show that the video card is properly recognized as a WX7100.
View attachment 925348

Additionally, I verified my boot rom is 87.0.0.0.0 (see below)
View attachment 925349

As a reminder, the High Sierra system has not been updated since last July so it does not have the May 2020 update on it yet. And I have confirmed the video card is functional in my iMac via booting from a Ubuntu Live USB drive.

I have not yet tried to go through OpenCore (hoping to get the screen to work in HS working without OC).

Any other suggestions would be welcome. I am thinking of trying to update the OS to Mojave and giving that a try. I do not intend to upgrade this iMac beyond Mojave due to several applications I use that are not supported in Catalina. What do you think?

Again, appreciate all the help!

Have a look to post 7008. It can help even before latest High Sierra update. You need to block AppleGraphicsDevicePolicy kernel extension using AMD cards to reach desktop with High Sierra.

 

[rtowner75]

perhaps this fix might help.. :

GitHub - ben-z/free-sidecar: Enable Sidecar on Unsupported iPads and Macs running iPadOS 13 and macOS Catalina

Enable Sidecar on Unsupported iPads and Macs running iPadOS 13 and macOS Catalina - ben-z/free-sidecar

github.com

let us know..

This works with my older MacAir (Early 2015) but this process only supports 2012 iMac and newer. Looks like no solution for 2011 (yet)
for now I am happy with continuity, handoff, and airdrop working.
Thanks!

 

[dn325ci]

2011 27 w/K2100M is doing quite well after the GPU change and upgrade to Catalina. Installed the AppleGraphicsControl kext after Catalina install - thanks @highvoltage12v.

The only issue remaining for me is that I have to hold option when restarting the machine (not that often) because otherwise I just get black screen forever. If I hold option, I get the Apple drive boot chooser screen, and I just pick the internal SSD and it boots from there normally. Not sure how to solve that or if it's worth solving.

Cheers everybody. I continue to appreciate the strength of the work of this community, and would have thrown the iMac into recycling if it weren't for you!

 

[SubDriver]

Which VBIOS is on your WX7100? In my experience, AMD cards will only ever have a black screen without OpenCore when using the GOP VBIOS, and if using the EP2 VBIOS, a hardware level mod is required for any screen backlight. I strongly recommend the OpenCore implementation over soldering. Before booting OpenCore with my WX4130, I also had nothing but a black screen, but once OC booted, all fine.

NOTNICE - I have the GOP VBIOS. Now that you mentioned it, I went back to the iMac Aftermarket GPU document at the bottom of the first post and I noticed that the VBIOS used for the versions without OpenCore was NOT the GOP VBIOS. It was B4_580X_75W.

I am going to give OC a shot since the card was flashed with the GOP VBIOS. I will attempt to follow the "Using the Catalina Loader on an iMac" document developed by @Ausdauersportler, @Pascal Baillargeau, and @highvoltage12v (Thanks to each of you!).

 

[SubDriver]

SUCCESS!!! I am now running my mid-2011 27" iMac with a Radeon Pro WX7100 on High Sierra booting through Open Core. My card is a "00D" variant (see first post). Below is the first Unigine Valley Benchmark. I will post them to the spreadsheet tomorrow.

As I mentioned above, special thanks to @Ausdauersportler, @Pascal Baillargeau, and @highvoltage12v for their work on the Using the Catalina Loader document with the instructions! And of course, Nick for all his efforts too!

One thing that is weird about the benchmark is that it appears to indicate only 256MB of VRAM on the card even though there is 8GB. Am I misunderstanding this?

On to Mojave. I will do this on a separate partition - will keep the functional High Sierra partition safe as suggested in the document!

 

[highvoltage12v]

SUCCESS!!! I am now running my mid-2011 27" iMac with a Radeon Pro WX7100 on High Sierra booting through Open Core. My card is a "00D" variant (see first post). Below is the first Unigine Valley Benchmark. I will post them to the spreadsheet tomorrow.

As I mentioned above, special thanks to @Ausdauersportler, @Pascal Baillargeau, and @highvoltage12v for their work on the Using the Catalina Loader document with the instructions! And of course, Nick for all his efforts too!
View attachment 925552

One thing that is weird about the benchmark is that it appears to indicate only 256MB of VRAM on the card even though there is 8GB. Am I misunderstanding this?

On to Mojave. I will do this on a separate partition - will keep the functional High Sierra partition safe as suggested in the document!

In high Sierra it will report 256MB Mojave/Catalina will report the full VRAM size, just a cosmetic bug.

In other news I'm working on capturing the AppleGraphicsControl.kext for Mojave, you (the community) really need to be on top of the iMac during the 2020-003 update, once the iMac reboots out if the first stage, it's important for you to enter the AppleBootPicker screen and select the drive on next boot to see what is going on, otherwise you will never know when/if the update has completed successfully. The same really goes for all Mac OS updates.

If stuck on a full progress bar like shown in the picture, reboot back into the Mac OS installer, run the post install app (deselect legacy video) run the patcher, and click Force rebuild caches right before reboot. This should fix the stuck progress bar issue.

Updated AppleGraphicsControl kext have been added to the Page for the Catalina Release post #5,887 and contains both Mojave and High Sierra modified kexts.

 

[r6mile]

They are both MXM. So, it should work fine.

Are they same size MXM, do you know? I can't seem to find the information online.

 

[herrdude]

Are they same size MXM, do you know? I can't seem to find the information online.

The fact that people are installing all the cards on the first page in 2010-2011 (even 2009 in some cases) should tell us that it will work.

 

[r6mile]

The fact that people are installing all the cards on the first page in 2010-2011 (even 2009 in some cases) should tell us that it will work.

Great, thank you again. I wasn't sure if the 21.5" 2011 iMac would fit the same size Radeon card as a 27" 2010 iMac.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Great, thank you again. I wasn't sure if the 21.5" 2011 iMac would fit the same size Radeon card as a 27" 2010 iMac.

Another hint:

You can install a 770M (although not recommended and not stable) and you may also put in the 5850M - but it is a MXM type B card (bigger format) than you are going to install it on a smaller existing heat sink and the card itself may get into contact with other internal parts of the very small and compact 21.5" case. The TDP of 30W will fit into the power budget of the 21.5".

If you open the iMac and spend so much work on it why not replacing the GPU with a cheap Quadro MXM A card?

 

[r6mile]

Another hint:

You can install a 770M (although not recommended and not stable) and you may also put in the 5850M - but it is a MXM type B card (bigger format) than you are going to install it on a smaller existing heat sink and the card itself may get into contact with other internal parts of the very small and compact 21.5" case. The TDP of 30W will fit into the power budget of the 21.5".

If you open the iMac and spend so much work on it why not replacing the GPU with a cheap Quadro MXM A card?

Thank you, that's what I've done on my personal 27 2010 iMac (hence why I have a spare Apple GPU), but this 21.5 2011 iMac is for my in-laws who are not very techy so can't be dealing with Opencore, no boot screens etc!

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thank you, that's what I've done on my personal 27 2010 iMac (hence why I have a spare Apple GPU), but this 21.5 2011 iMac is for my in-laws who are not very techy so can't be dealing with Opencore, no boot screens etc!

You are welcome! I prepared two such systems for my dad (over 80) and my brother. Both are definitively not techy Nvidia cards have boot screen even without OpenCore on alt/option (these cards lack the brightness control without) and I just told them to ignore the SD card in the slot.

Using Catalina or Mojave with a new card and recent browser versions allow them to use the metal apps like Photos (really important), Maps, etc, and electronic banking and everything else. Okay, even High Sierra got a security update in May, but if I count right there will be possibly only one more to come. This is a dead end, too.

 

[ZenSurfeur]

SUCCESS!!! I am now running my mid-2011 27" iMac with a Radeon Pro WX7100 on High Sierra booting through Open Core. My card is a "00D" variant (see first post). Below is the first Unigine Valley Benchmark. I will post them to the spreadsheet tomorrow.

As I mentioned above, special thanks to @Ausdauersportler, @Pascal Baillargeau, and @highvoltage12v for their work on the Using the Catalina Loader document with the instructions! And of course, Nick for all his efforts too!
View attachment 925552

One thing that is weird about the benchmark is that it appears to indicate only 256MB of VRAM on the card even though there is 8GB. Am I misunderstanding this?

On to Mojave. I will do this on a separate partition - will keep the functional High Sierra partition safe as suggested in the document!

Hello
Can you gimme a link where you bought this Radeon Pro WX 7100?
A picture too
Thx

 

[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.

I got my GPU in the mail and tried the clip, but was unable to get a solid contact with the BIOS chip. Tried the Linux USB method but am unable to flash my K610M. It is saying there is a GPU mismatch. I am trying to use the nikey22 custom bios for the K610M. I won't be able to post error screenshots until later today, but maybe someone knows where I'm going wrong?

 

[SubDriver]

Hello
Can you gimme a link where you bought this Radeon Pro WX 7100?
A picture too
Thx

I bought it from the following site: https://www.ebay.com/sch/techredosurplus/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=
I am not sure if they have any more - I may have simply gotten lucky. The card wasn't specifically identified as a WX7100 in the listing. It was identified as "Dell Precision 7720 AMD Radeon Video Graphics Card CN-0308VY-MSC00-7BE-0237-A01" on the site (It was pulled from a Dell Precision 7720 laptop). I was searching Google for "Dell Precision Laptop Video Card" or something similar to that when I came across it. Searching simply for "WX7100" seemed to only be returning results from China, and based on other posts indicating a lot of bad or non-working cards from China I was trying to avoid purchasing one from there.

Another site you might look at is https://www.ebay.com/str/reddoortech

Both of these sites are in the US. Pics of my card are below. I replaced the x-bracket with the one from my original HD6970M card that came with my iMac when I bought it. No modifications to the bracket were required.

 

[Wania]

hi,
I did everything as @highvoltage12v wrote, Installed the AppleGraphicsControl kext and the rest of the kext files after installing Mojave. MacX does not show Hardware Encoder. can anyone help me?

 

[ringono-tobira]

Is it possible to attach gtx780m to iMac 2011 21.5?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Is it possible to attach gtx780m to iMac 2011 21.5?

First page, first post, read yourself!
[automerge]1592807694[/automerge]

hi,
I did everything as @highvoltage12v wrote, Installed the AppleGraphicsControl kext and the rest of the kext files after installing Mojave. MacX does not show Hardware Encoder. can anyone help me?

Do you own a 2011 system with a Sandy Bridge CPU? Why did you install the rest of the kext files, excactly?

 

[MysticIce]

I think he is saying that it works on his iMac 2010 but when he installs the same card on his 2011 it doesn't work.

He should reset the PRAM to start off. Make sure all 4 diagnostic LEDs are coming on. Check all the connections, etc.

Did a PRAM reset. Still black screen. All 4 diagnostic LEDs are on. I’ve reflashed the card multiple times. Any advice?

 

[r6mile]

You are welcome! I prepared two such systems for my dad (over 80) and my brother. Both are definitively not techy Nvidia cards have boot screen even without OpenCore on alt/option (these cards lack the brightness control without) and I just told them to ignore the SD card in the slot.

Using Catalina or Mojave with a new card and recent browser versions allow them to use the metal apps like Photos (really important), Maps, etc, and electronic banking and everything else. Okay, even High Sierra got a security update in May, but if I count right there will be possibly only one more to come. This is a dead end, too.

Thanks, I would but OpenCore hasn't been exactly faultless for me (see https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/issues-with-opencore-and-k2100m.2240389/), and I still can't get it to reliably boot straight into MacOSX without an OpenCore error prompt, as well as my TDM issues. Not insurmountable for me, but I wouldn't want to saddle 70 year olds with this!

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Did a PRAM reset. Still black screen. All 4 diagnostic LEDs are on. I’ve reflashed the card multiple times. Any advice?

There is a black screen issue with all recent MacOS versions. Read post one on page one to find the solution. There is absolutely no need to re-flash cards when checking in different systems. Unless you do not post all your hardware and software settings in a signature we have to guess...

 

[Snow Chong]

So for now is WX7100 the king of upgradeable gpu if we can get our hands on it?
Do you think any higher end gpu, should they become available, would give us meaningful gain over the wx7100?
Or is wx7100 going to be choking on i5-2500s?

Sorry in advance if this has already been answered.