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

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The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
I just ordered one of these machines cheap (i7 3.4GHz, 16GB, 6970m 2GB, 256SSD + 1TB) to play around with. The seller says it has GPU issue but from the pictures it is really looks like just a backlight issue (which I can fix... done it before). If it actually is a 6970m failure I would probably do a reflow to buy some time.

However, given that I really don't need graphics card performance (I have a gaming PC for that) I was considering just dropping it down to an Apple 6770m or even 6750m card. I assume that those cards, being much lower power dissipation don't have anywhere near the same failure rate as these 6970m? Or even a lower power Nvidia card assuming that I can find the right combination of UEFI support and proper direction of video signal to DP (instead of LVDS).

Great thread.

edit. Ordered a 6770m 512MB card from a 21.5" iMac. Assuming I can just swap over the heatsink and plunk it in the 27".
 
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Hello all, and a Big Thank you for your time and share here.
I have a problem with my 6970 -well it is very dead.
So i bought and wait to receive GTX 765M N14E-GE-B-A1 2GB MXM For Dell Alienware 5YPW3 09R3F5
From what i have red 33 pages... there should be no problem to work with mid 2011 27" imac
But still there a few questions for me:
1. Currently i have high sierra installed, what to do after mount the new GPU?
i mean should i hold shift and try install older version of MacOS...?
2. I do understand that there will be no more logo screen - and i`m fine with it - but
brightness - how to control it?
Thank you all for the help and support!
 
fokser said:
Hello all, and a Big Thank you for your time and share here.
I have a problem with my 6970 -well it is very dead.
So i bought and wait to receive GTX 765M N14E-GE-B-A1 2GB MXM For Dell Alienware 5YPW3 09R3F5
From what i have red 33 pages... there should be no problem to work with mid 2011 27" imac
But still there a few questions for me:
1. Currently i have high sierra installed, what to do after mount the new GPU?
i mean should i hold shift and try install older version of MacOS...?
2. I do understand that there will be no more logo screen - and i`m fine with it - but
brightness - how to control it?
Thank you all for the help and support!
Click to expand...

Let us know if it works OK. I would love to find a consistent video card that works. I am just in the process of getting myself setup with a Raspberry PI to be able to edit EFI contents and play around with different cards.
 
fokser said:
Hello all, and a Big Thank you for your time and share here.
I have a problem with my 6970 -well it is very dead.
So i bought and wait to receive GTX 765M N14E-GE-B-A1 2GB MXM For Dell Alienware 5YPW3 09R3F5
From what i have red 33 pages... there should be no problem to work with mid 2011 27" imac
But still there a few questions for me:
1. Currently i have high sierra installed, what to do after mount the new GPU?
i mean should i hold shift and try install older version of MacOS...?
2. I do understand that there will be no more logo screen - and i`m fine with it - but
brightness - how to control it?
Thank you all for the help and support!
Click to expand...

AFAIK you need to install the nVidia webdrivers. You'll have to do that before installing the card, or some work-around method?
 
MichaelDT said:
Excellent news it is exactly as I suspected, you simply need an mxm a/b card that supports UEFI. I did loose my initial boot screen but once OSX loads the screen powers up. So initially I ordered the 675m but when I received that card it had BIOS only drivers...so I ordered a DELL/Alienware 680M off ebay. Only Trouble so far is it isn't recognizing my second display, but I'll tinker and we shall see if I can fix that.:)

Edit: So looking at my console logs it senses the second display then drops it, I'm thinking it is the driver.
Click to expand...
How is your iMac running
 
From what i read i have to install somehow the nvidia drivers and cross fingers :)
i think to take off the hard drive mount it via usb to another mac and install fresh macos +nvidia drivers on it...
then to get it back and try with new video.
If you have other suggestions - i`ll be glad to hear.
 
I upgraded my CPU from a 2600 to a 2700k in my 201 27 imac running sierra. Only had to delete the AppleHWSensor.kext file. I got excited and decided to try a graphics upgrade before doing any research....

I bought a Radeon HD 7970m (alienware) for $140 on ebay. It will be here in a couple of weeks.
I did that because its the closest card to my current 6970m, so I figured it would be most compatible. Logical, right?
Well, I was surprised to find that no one had tried that card. I've read through the whole thread.
What do any experienced upgraders have to say about what I should expect with this card and compatibility?
Was it a big mistake? Should I try it and report back?

Also, what is everyone using to replace thermal pads?
 
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I'm currently in the market for a used iMac and have a spare MXM 3.0B card from a PC laptop. Would this upgrade work for either a 2010 or 2012 iMac 27"? The MXM card is a bit unusual - it's an AMD FirePro M6100, aka Radeon 8950M. Has anyone tried this upgrade with a FirePro?
 
Hello to all!
I have good news and bad news!
The good news is that the Video is working really good when tested it is really close to 6970m and when gaming - it seems that it is good choice.
I run the system on the last 10.13.3 version and it is working better with the mac drivers. I also install the original nvidia drivers - but they seem to have some problems and display is making some strange things sometimes.
Both give the same points in Heaven test.
About the installation - a little bit trimming of the heat sink /from 6970/ both sides - there was a small capacitor on the bottom to think on...
So bad news are already known - no begging logo / it shows right before start / and no brightness control.
IT runs really good on all fans low up to 70-75 degrees after hours of test and gaming - so it is cooler then ATI for sure.

The bad thing is that i`m trying to bring back my brightness control - i have tried some app but it turns out that it makes only colors darker - not dimming the light.
Please advice what to read or to test?! Why is this problem happening - and why there is not a good app to fix this?

Thank you for the support!
 
Because Apple does its own thingy on controlling the backlight. The are some more or less standards for those MXM cards, but the iMac seems to ignore those data in den ROM. Not sure how Apple is sending the signals to the pwm chip and how they get the status, but without modding the ROM we won't get backlight control.
Didn't have the time to try, but I was thinking about a good old turning knob somewhere in the case.. The pwm controller is on the panel, so it shouldn't be much of a problem with a small PIC or any other microcontroller.
 
Zeitkind said:
Because Apple does its own thingy on controlling the backlight. The are some more or less standards for those MXM cards, but the iMac seems to ignore those data in den ROM. Not sure how Apple is sending the signals to the pwm chip and how they get the status, but without modding the ROM we won't get backlight control.
Didn't have the time to try, but I was thinking about a good old turning knob somewhere in the case.. The pwm controller is on the panel, so it shouldn't be much of a problem with a small PIC or any other microcontroller.
Click to expand...
:) I think there should be better solution, then putting pic inside to control PWM :) come on guys we can do better then that.
 
hello you GEEKS :D

first of all incredible work !

i bought my first 27imac today and willing to make hole lot of updates. I paid 270euros for the iMac

Its in original state so mid 2010

i3 3.2 GHz
5670 512mb
4giggs ram

im planing :

i5 -750 socket 1156
gpu worries me because f the price
16gigis

so to the deal , has anyone have this same imac , what did you do about poor gpu ( i bought this Computer for the upgrade, planning on palying cs source and f1 2017 )

but has someone old gpus before the upgrade whats willing to sell ( im thinking its easier , i live in Finland)

or my dream would be some gtx nvidia card.

PLEASE help me , what should i do ?=
 
Hi Folks
long time i´ve been only a reader in this Forum, now i registered.
I've read the whole Thread, some of the posts were pointless in my opinion, some were fascinating and some were ingenious.
Because I like to hack on my Macs now it´s time to boost up the GPU in my A1312 iMac a little.
Just a little cause my working bolide (MP5,1 12Core) already hold a Mac flashed Titan X in it.

I've read a lot about the 780m and some others, but for my purposes these are to expensive. I don't wana spend more than €200 for the GPU.

What I not need necessarily:
- Brightness control (i'm visually impaired my Screen runs always @100% brightnes)
- EFI Boot Screen (in worst case i can use the HD6770)
What I would like to have:
- slightly more power than what the HD6770 serves
What i urgently need:
- access to Login and Desktop w/o Webdrivers cause i often use different OSX versions.

Last thing i know is that the Kepler are supportet by the native OSX Drivers, right?

Right now i have a finger on several cards and i NEED YOU to tell me which of these will fit my requirements

- GTX870M MS-1W0C1 VER:1.1 N15E-GT-A2 MSI
- GTX660M N13E-GE-A2 Alienware M17...
- GTX765M Alienware M17xR4

The're all in my price range (€100 - €200)

So PLEASE, help me out of my misery.
Which one should i take?

Thanks forward for reading
Greets

Edit:
or otherwise,
is here a possibility that we generate a list of GPUs which run oob, which run with Webdriver, which run with bios mod, which run with hardware mod?

i think many Guys(incl me) would be very thankful if such a list exists
 
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6D22743F-3E68-4979-812C-A8DFE6BDFF0A.jpeg
Mine works on safe mode only
Any idea ?
 
Hello everyone!
So, what's the best GPU at this moment that will be 100% effective without any problems?

Regards.
 
Hello guys,
it seams that when pressing Mac startup key combinations - nothing happens.
We`ll it is one thing that we cannot see it but it is another - why not working
when press it?
Any idea, why or how to fix it?
Thank you!
 
fokser said:
Hello guys,
it seams that when pressing Mac startup key combinations - nothing happens.
We`ll it is one thing that we cannot see it but it is another - why not working
when press it?
Any idea, why or how to fix it?
Thank you!
Click to expand...

Hey Fokser!
Thanks to your post and all the other people ones, I was able to fix my 2011 iMac with a new 765m from eBay. I have two queries for the forum.

Everything works fine, except that randomly I have some horizontal lines appearing on screen. I don't know if this is a pin I did not plug back right, or if this is the graphic card "normal" behaviour, regarding the handcraft fix I made. Anyone had the same issue?

Second, I am trying to install bootcamp, so I need to edit the Info.plist file in the Bootcamp package, and for that I need to disable the system integrity protection (SIP), booting in recovery mode. But same as you, when I boot on recovery mode (or with alt pressed), I get only a black screen. Any idea to fix that? Or to find a way to edit this f*** plist...

Thanks for your help.
 
NicoDjodj said:
Hey Fokser!
Thanks to your post and all the other people ones, I was able to fix my 2011 iMac with a new 765m from eBay. I have two queries for the forum.

Everything works fine, except that randomly I have some horizontal lines appearing on screen. I don't know if this is a pin I did not plug back right, or if this is the graphic card "normal" behaviour, regarding the handcraft fix I made. Anyone had the same issue?

Second, I am trying to install bootcamp, so I need to edit the Info.plist file in the Bootcamp package, and for that I need to disable the system integrity protection (SIP), booting in recovery mode. But same as you, when I boot on recovery mode (or with alt pressed), I get only a black screen. Any idea to fix that? Or to find a way to edit this f*** plist...

Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...
Hello Nico,
About the first question:
it could be that you`re using nVidia drivers, if so and version is 13.x it`ll be better to switch to macos drivers. Easy way to do that is to go near the clock top right and to check it - after reboot it should be fixed. The performance is the same.
About the black screen - still no idea how to fix.

Please reply if this solution fix your problem. P.S no need to uninstall nvidia, just switch between drivers.

Regards
 
NicoDjodj said:
Hey Fokser!
Thanks to your post and all the other people ones, I was able to fix my 2011 iMac with a new 765m from eBay. I have two queries for the forum.

Everything works fine, except that randomly I have some horizontal lines appearing on screen. I don't know if this is a pin I did not plug back right, or if this is the graphic card "normal" behaviour, regarding the handcraft fix I made. Anyone had the same issue?
Click to expand...

Hey I got this 765m card too, bought it on eBay it came out of a Dell Alienware, haven't got round to putting it in my iMac 2011 yet. So glad to hear yours works, is it the same card as mine? Did you have any problems with the installation? Do you get boot screens?
 
vkd said:
Hey I got this 765m card too, bought it on eBay it came out of a Dell Alienware, haven't got round to putting it in my iMac 2011 yet. So glad to hear yours works, is it the same card as mine? Did you have any problems with the installation? Do you get boot screens?
Click to expand...
Hello vkd,
My heat sink was from 6970 so i needed to trim top part because memory chips needed space but it was easy on trimming machine / not by hand /. Also replaced all sealing elements / silicone pads /
On bottom side - there was 1 capacitor that you need to be careful - again trim 2-3mms nothing more.
No heat sinks on memory on bottom.
Otherwise no problems - no boot screen...and brightness trim - with app.
Regards
 
fokser said:
Hello vkd,
My heat sink was from 6970 so i needed to trim top part because memory chips needed space but it was easy on trimming machine / not by hand /. Also replaced all sealing elements / silicone pads /
On bottom side - there was 1 capacitor that you need to be careful - again trim 2-3mms nothing more.
No heat sinks on memory on bottom.
Otherwise no problems - no boot screen...and brightness trim - with app.
Regards
Click to expand...

So you need to modify the heat sink, presumably it won't fit otherwise. Did you need to use the Nvidia web drivers? Final question, what is this brightness trip app you mention?

Thanks.
 
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