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

[Ausdauersportler]

OK, I will try to understand.
If I have any questions, can you help?
My Mac does not have any MacOS installed.
Can I do the procedures from under Windows 10?
Or will I have to install MakOS in addition?
(Perhaps my questions are very naive. This is because I do not own the work on MacOS operating systems at all).

Download works with Windows, too? Balena Etcher to write an SD card is available for Windows, too. Reading the docs should work with Windows, too. No, you do not need a MacOS partition. What a waste of this nice machine And please try at least to get things done on your own. I stopped the spoon feeding with my children at the age of 6 month, approximately.

 

[caxias_Brazil]

I want to do this topic in thanks to Nick, herrdude, xanderon, highvoltage12v and other friends in this forum who also collaborated in some way to bring the old macs to life.
Thank you very much, from Brazil a hug for everyone!
👏👏👏

 

[Roman78]

Take a look at techpowerup.com and similar sites.

Yes indeed. But i have try to flash those from within Windows. The problem of those cards are those strange EPROM chips, the normal clamp wont fit on it. So i try it from windows and take the a remote screen or a USB-GPU. As long as it starts an not get bricked, well i have 2 cards to try and in the worst case i have to remove the EPROM from the pcb.

 

[mdgm]

I have four base 21.5" 2011 iMacs still working fine. Have upgraded the RAM to 8GB in each machine (4x2GB in 2 machines and 2x4GB in the other 2), but other than that they still have the stock configuration with 500GB HDD.

It seems I am doing well to have graphics cards still working fine.

What issues would suggest that the graphics card would need replacing with one of these (apart from needing it to run newer than High Sierra)?

Is there somewhere that this can get done in Melbourne (I don't feel confident to do an advanced repair like this)?

 

[r6mile]

I have four base 21.5" 2011 iMacs still working fine. Have upgraded the RAM to 8GB in each machine (4x2GB in 2 machines and 2x4GB in the other 2), but other than that they still have the stock configuration with 500GB HDD.

It seems I am doing well to have graphics cards still working fine.

What issues would suggest that the graphics card would need replacing with one of these (apart from needing it to run newer than High Sierra)?

Is there somewhere that this can get done in Melbourne (I don't feel confident to do an advanced repair like this)?

Well done on keeping the GPUs still going - these Radeon cards don't have the best reliability record. If they were failing you might see graphic artefacts on the screen, vertical lines, get stuck on a grey screen at boot, or even have no picture at all (there may be others, but this is my experience). If you don't have these issues yet, and you don't need better graphics performance and/or go beyond High Sierra, personally I wouldn't bother with changing your GPU until you need to. Especially if you don't feel confident doing the repair yourself.

If and when you need to get this done, take advantage of the opportunity of having your computer opened up and put in an SSD.

 

[Roman78]

I have four base 21.5" 2011 iMacs still working fine. Have upgraded the RAM to 8GB in each machine (4x2GB in 2 machines and 2x4GB in the other 2), but other than that they still have the stock configuration with 500GB HDD.

It seems I am doing well to have graphics cards still working fine.

What issues would suggest that the graphics card would need replacing with one of these (apart from needing it to run newer than High Sierra)?

Is there somewhere that this can get done in Melbourne (I don't feel confident to do an advanced repair like this)?

The GPU in the 21,5 failing less often. The DH6750M in the 21.5" is a 35Watt card and the HD6970M a 75W card. The lower watt will produce less heat and last longer. Clean the iMac in a certain interval, dust kills your PC... And if you don't need Catalina just stay with the stock cards.

 

[Roman78]

Gee, i just took a look at the RAM-Chips from the broken GTX 860M, they are 8,81€ each in China, so for all the 16 Chips that would be 140€... that's too much for a try.

 

[mdgm]

The iMacs have never been opened up other than the RAM Access Panel to move 2x2GB sticks from each of two of the Macs to the other 2 Macs, to bump them up to 4x2GB and put 2x4GB sticks in each of the two Macs that had RAM removed. It was an economical way to double the RAM in each of the machines.

I've never taken the screen off to clean the inside of the machine, but thinking about bumping the RAM again and adding SSDs to speed up boot times and app loading times or just getting new machines with SSD preinstalled in the factory.

I think I won't bother with the GPU at this stage. These machines typically aren't used for things overly taxing on the machine, so I guess that has probably helped the longevity as well with less heat produced.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Yes indeed. But i have try to flash those from within Windows. The problem of those cards are those strange EPROM chips, the normal clamp wont fit on it. So i try it from windows and take the a remote screen or a USB-GPU. As long as it starts an not get bricked, well i have 2 cards to try and in the worst case i have to remove the EPROM from the pcb.

I use the Linux flash usb stick doing this. First I fetched all the vBIOS version from the net and than I checked them having an additional external display attached one by one.

 

[Roman78]

@mdgm Just open the machine an clean both heat sinks.

@Ausdauersportler How do you flash those? Do you have some external GPU attached?

I Just took a look at the TechPowerUp database, they only have one Bios for the K3000M, a HP version....

 

[Ausdauersportler]

@mdgm Just open the machine an clean both heat sinks.

@Ausdauersportler How do you flash those? Do you have some external GPU attached?

I Just took a look at the TechPowerUp database, they only have one Bios for the K3000M, a HP version....

Yes, I have always a second display connected and I have only one version of MacOS installed, screen sharing, remote access and file sharing enabled. So I can check the success from a remote machine even if both displays remain black - which could be an Apple issue. No external GPU. Using the Linux USB flash method described on page one in post one.

 

[Roman78]

Aha, you talking about this method: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread....1596614/page-175?post=28184981#post-28184981 That looks interesting indeed.

 

[Amsterdamned]

They arrived today. But... display stays black, even using the Webdrivers. This are the Dell X5FFM cards for the Percision M6700 / M6800. Maybe other Firmware can help.

Bugger. Pretty sure mine is a Dell refurb card. Will see how I go when it gets here. For now, I have a “working” 6770m but it has paused on boot before so I’m crossing my fingers.

 

[r6mile]

Of possible interest to anyone in the UK or Europe:

This seller (NOT ME) has just put two listings for K2100Ms at £69.99 (same price as AliExpress but you don't have to wait a month!):
-link 1
-link 2

I can't vouch for the seller at all but it seems very interesting - he has 10 of them in stock between the 2 listings. I just placed an order for a K610M on AliExpress for £30, but this is making me reconsider...

EDIT: All gone in the space of an hour... What is going on with these cards??

 

[okamiokami]

Installed a 765M into a 2011 27-inch iMac. Flashed the card with the USB stick method. Boot screen works, no brightness control. Installed Catalina with DosDude‘s patch. Everything is working, but I get a black screen every time when changes are made to the PRAM (ie changing startup volume, even changing volume). To avoid resetting the PRAM at each boot, I found out that booting with ALT/Option depressed sort of bypasses the issue. Much faster than zapping the PRAM.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Installed a 765M into a 2011 27-inch iMac. Flashed the card with the USB stick method. Boot screen works, no brightness control. Installed Catalina with DosDude‘s patch. Everything is working, but I get a black screen every time when changes are made to the PRAM (ie changing startup volume, even changing volume). To avoid resetting the PRAM at each boot, I found out that booting with ALT/Option depressed sort of bypasses the issue. Much faster than zapping the PRAM.

Yes, go to the first page and first post and search for "black screen" issue. For each MacOS version @highvoltage12v published a fitting kernel extension to replace. Than you can get around the "alt/option" bypass. You need it at least once to get into the MacOS and do the extension installation.

 

[Inspiring]

I have pinned down the problem that:

K1100M is indeed dual-mode, supporting both HDMI and Mini DisplayPort signal.

High Sierra, with K1100M, iMac 207 2011, Custom Bios, OpenCore or not => Outputs successfully to Mini Display Port, 4k @ 60 hz

Catalina with Dosdude1 patch, with K1100M, iMac 207 2011, Custom Bios, OpenCore or not => Doesn't output to Display port, only output via Mini-DisplayPort to HDMI signal, 4k @ 30hz max using MDP=>HDMI 2.0 Cable.

Does any one know how I should work out what went wrong? It appears that the OS was loading some module that prevented DisplayPort output.

OK I have figured this out - This happened to a lot of people in Catalina and there is a fix at

Mojave to Catalina Displayport Not Working

Hi All, Seems to be a lot of people having issues with DisplayPort not working after upgrading to Catalina, but HDMI still does - and I'm one of them. Everything else works - just not DisplayPort Have been struggling to find answers on any other threads as to how to fix, and I can't work out...

www.tonymacx86.com

I have changed my model to Mac Mini late 2014 in OpenCore to bring Mini Display Port function back.

 

[mazz0]

Hi all,

I think I’ve read too much and confused myself here. I’m looking for the easiest upgrade, particularly physically (I’d really rather not have to cut or grind anything). If I find a card that’s listed as “Heatsink mod required: No“ are there any other physical modifications I might still need to make (this is for a 27”, and I think (I’ll check) I have the three pipe heatsink)?

Thanks

 

[GreppMichaels]

Hi all,

I think I’ve read too much and confused myself here. I’m looking for the easiest upgrade, particularly physically (I’d really rather not have to cut or grind anything). If I find a card that’s listed as “Heatsink mod required: No“ are there any other physical modifications I might still need to make (this is for a 27”, and I think (I’ll check) I have the three pipe heatsink)?

Thanks

You only need to modify a heatsink for the larger MXM cards, the quadro k2100m is your best bet currently as you don't need any physical modification beyond either tapping out the xclamp or using larger mounting bolts as mentioned in the original thread

 

[xxtsxx702]

I am having some stability issues (random reboots) with a K2100m on Catalina + OC. What are the tell tale signs of a bad (or going bad) card? The kernel reboots often include com.apple.nvidia.driver.NVDAResman which leads me to believe it is related to the card. I am trying to do some troubleshooting to see what I need to address to make this stable. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[highvoltage12v]

Hi all,

I think I’ve read too much and confused myself here. I’m looking for the easiest upgrade, particularly physically (I’d really rather not have to cut or grind anything). If I find a card that’s listed as “Heatsink mod required: No“ are there any other physical modifications I might still need to make (this is for a 27”, and I think (I’ll check) I have the three pipe heatsink)?

Thanks

If your iMac 27" shipped with a 6770M installed then you're in luck, there was a 2 pipe heatsink used in those models. Personally I use a 21.5" heatsink in my 27" model, the 21.5" heatsink is actually longer than the 27" heatsink so I got creative to use materials inside to extend the duct.

I added a picture of how the heatsink will extend past the bracket and won't screw in anymore, doesn't bother me.

 

[mazz0]

You only need to modify a heatsink for the larger MXM cards, the quadro k2100m is your best bet currently as you don't need any physical modification beyond either tapping out the xclamp or using larger mounting bolts as mentioned in the original thread

Awesome, thanks for the clear cut answer! I see from the PDF that’s one of the less powerful options. Do you think by being disicnlined to make bigger changes I’m going missing out on significant performance improvements?
[automerge]1593197813[/automerge]

If your iMac 27" shipped with a 6770M installed then you're in luck, there was a 2 pipe heatsink used in those models.

That’s what I have, the 6770M. I thought the 3 pipe Heatsink was better - are you sayings it’s less compatible? I’m a little confused why you ended up with things in a different position?

 

[highvoltage12v]

Awesome, thanks for the clear cut answer! I see from the PDF that’s one of the less powerful options. Do you think by being disicnlined to make bigger changes I’m going missing out on significant performance improvements?
[automerge]1593197813[/automerge]

That’s what I have, the 6770M. I thought the 3 pipe Heatsink was better - are you sayings it’s less compatible? I’m a little confused why you ended up with things in a different position?

If you want a k610m/k2100m/k1100m or WX4130 the MXM-A heatsink that the 6770m uses fits those cards perfectly.
If you want to use an MXM-B card you need the 6790M heatsink and need to modify it by grinding down the upper area with a dremel, MXM-B cards are the 765m/770M/780m/k4100m/wx4170/wx7100.

 

[stephle]

Hello

everybody

new to the forum I finally decided to register to share my experience.

I bought a 2009 imac 1 month ago with hs video card )
and I found on ebay a k5000m so I ordered it )

after browsing the forums a bit I could see that the kepler was compatible so I started

and the chess started: (((

no boot screen, random display ect .....

3 weeks later

I have my boot screen, and the brightness control command but not the adjustment: (((no effect, short.

after browsing the different pdf found on the net, I came across the description of the MXM structures, notably the adjustment of the gpio which controls it.

but I'm not from the computer world, all these instructions give me a hard time


so that's why I defer to you

do you know what are the table indexes that manage this, or the table itself, and if someone has already tried the experiment?

https://lekensteyn.nl/files/docs/mxm-graphics-module-software-specification-version-3.0-revision-1.1.pdf

on page 70

if anyone can help )


sorry for my English (


come to think of it, i saw a restart problem too long it seems to me.

you can test that

replace

01 74 47 B0 1E

1E in 01

thank you

 

[mazz0]

If you want a k610m/k2100m/k1100m or WX4130 the MXM-A heatsink that the 6770m uses fits those cards perfectly.
If you want to use an MXM-B card you need the 6790M heatsink and need to modify it by grinding down the upper area with a dremel, MXM-B cards are the 765m/770M/780m/k4100m/wx4170/wx7100.

Awesome, thanks!