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

[nikey22]

** NVIDIA Quadro K3100M Mac Edition ROM **
Genuine Native Boot Screen & Brightness Control​

Pre-installation Requirements:
- iMac12,2 (27-inch Mid 2011) Mac-942B59F58194171B (Tested machine)
- BootROM: 87.0.0.0.0. Please use High Sierra to update your BootROM to latest version.

- GPU Variant: N15E-Q1-A2

- Hynix GDDR5 Die Generation variants

H5GQ2H24AFR - Hynix 1st Generation die - VDD 1.5V, use K3100M_AFR.rom
H5GC2H24BFR - Hynix 2nd Generation die - VDD 1.35V, use K3100M_BFR.rom
H5GQ2H24BFR - Hynix 2nd Generation die - VDD 1.5V, use K3100M_BFR.rom

known working cards:
Dell K3100M vbios: 80.04.B0.00.0A
HP K3100M vbios: 80.04.CD.00.0A. PN: 744354-001

This ROM does not require a 3rd party bootloader like OpenCore.
This ROM is build on the same principles as my K4100M. Unfortunately, the color-pixel bug is still present. But I am working on it. The brightness will need to be adjusted via a kext as previous. I have a feeling that the native brightness dimness is also inline with the same generic driver bug previously mentioned. The rom has a modest clock table boost as well.

Post-installation Requirements:
Brightness Control Stepping Mod:
-Turn computer on, hold down Command(⌘)-R
-Choose Utilities > Terminal
-Enter:csrutil disable
-MacOS Catalina: requires you to make root writeable: sudo mount -uw /
-You can download 'Hackintool v3.05' , navigate to

menu, use the

icon at the bottom to disable gatekeeper and mount the disk in read/write mode.
-Download and open 'Kext Utility v2.6.6'

-Navigate to S/L/E (System/Library/Extensions)
-Copy "AppleBacklight.kext" to Desktop
-Edit: AppleBacklight.kext/Contents/Info.plist
-Scroll down to: IOKitPersonalities > AppleIntelPanelA > ApplePanels
-There you find several Apple LCD profiles.
-For the iMac 2011 27" machine locate:

<key>F10Ta007</key>
<data>
ABEABgALABQAHAAnADMAPwBOAFwAZwBzAIEAkQClAL8A2wD/
</data>

-Change the <data> section to:
ABEAAgA3AF8AigCzAOsBJAFnAakB1AIJAlQCogL4A00DlgRpBGk=

-Drag your modded kext into Kext Utility, allow it correct permissions
-"Applebacklight.kext.bak" folder will be created
-Reboot

The above data pattern will allow for a wider span of steppings for the brightness control and utilizes more of the capacity of the HD3000. If you have a different machine, your panel ID can be found by going to System Preferences > Displays > Color > Open Profile > mmod

Caveats post-install/Bugs:
-16bit resolution glitch of UGA_DRAW_PROTOCOL - temporary solution: activate a sleep cycle and return, this should now clear the issue.

warning: please remember this is a WSON based card. You will be unable to recover from a bad flash with clip.





"insanely great!"
-Steve Jobs

**update**
01-27-2021 BFR-mem:1800Mhz; TDP:849.5Mhz, Rom Ver:31.6B.32.37.B1
12-07-2020 TDP/3D/Boost adjusted for both ROMs
12-06-2020 new roms for Hynix AFR and Hynix BFR based vRAMs should fix white/black screen issue
10-04-2020 working on Catalina 10.15.7, HP PN:744354-001 @GButorin
08-04-2020 working on Sierra 10.12.6 @Ausdauersportler

 

[StephN999]

Bonjour,

Great job.

Can't wait to see the same for the K2100m if that's possible. 😅

I didn't understand the color-pixel bug, I must have missed the information, but I'm careful to read everything... 😓

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thanks so much for this!

One issue I've picked up after the flashing though with my 780M is now when I select any device, other than OSX (push and hold ALT at startup) the machine just freezes, including if I reboot to Windows. I tried CD Drive boot too, also freezes.

OSX Starts fine and brightness control works great! No more burning my retina's!

Wondering if I missed something somewhere or if anyone else experienced the same?

Hello!

Having a similar setup and currently no issues with the boot picker and the choice of other OS versions. I use macOS Catalina and Mojave and Windows 10 UEFI (once in a while). You tried the magic PRAM reset, which you probably once made to enable the card after installing it (this is just a guess, because I have really no other idea).

The card works even with the OpenCore boot picker I am using because of some other experimental stuff...
[automerge]1596367819[/automerge]

** NVIDIA Quadro K3100M ROM **
Genuine Native Boot Screen & Brightness Control​

I have put together a ROM for the NVIDIA Quadro K3100M which will allow:

• Genuine native brightness control
• Genuine ‘gray’ early-boot screen (stage 1 & 2 progress bar)
• Genuine macOS bootloader ready

This ROM does not require a 3rd party bootloader like OpenCore.

This ROM is build on the same principles as my K4100M. Unfortunately, the color-pixel bug is still present. But I am working on it. The brightness will need to be adjusted via a kext as previous. I have a feeling that the native brightness dimness is also inline with the same generic driver bug previously mentioned. The rom has a modest clock table boost as well. I have been running it like that for 4wks without crashing.

View attachment 939736 View attachment 939740

"insanely great!"
-Steve Jobs

YOU are insanely great! Updated the first post...

 

[highvoltage12v]

Hello all
I finally managed to upgrade my imac to an nvidia quadro k1100m gpu and istalled the hdd with mojave from my dead macbook but i cant figure out how to get the backlight kext running, also does anyone know how to open my bootcamp partition with windows 10 or install a new one?

Thanks in advance

For Mojave and High Sierra you download Kext utility from Cvad. Then take the Kext and drag it ontop of the Kext utility icon.

Catalina needs Hackintool to unlock the System partition (see the 2011 sleep guide) and then install the Kext using Kext utility. Open terminal and enter "sudo reboot" once complete.

2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade

For Nvidia Users booting with OpenCore(k1100M/k2100M/ETC)/ native booting K3100M/K4100M & 780M I have Updated the ApplebacklightFixup.kext to include the proper Backlight stepping-levels for the 2009-2011 27" iMac. You can replace the one in your OpenCore loader with this or install it Natively...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Ausdauersportler]

AMD Configuration News

After some experiments with an updated version of the PolarisBoost I decided to offer all users the choice of both the old and new version. The reason is quite simple: The performance enhancing setting we used were simply switching off the idle mode of the GPU. It runs all the time at maximum core clock and maximum memory clock burning more power than really needed.

Why we did this in the first way? Currently with some of the AMD cards we have still the "inverse Malaria" problem. The drivers are not initialised on boot unless the card went at least once into sleep mode. After that first sleep you get reasonable high GeekBench5 metal scores. The OpenGL results available with Valley are the same before and after sleep.

The changes in the PolarisBoostMAX (new name now) solved this, but I am not willing to pay that price right now. It is up to you choosing one of the two version attached to my former post and pay your own power bill.

Got a first reply from @Pascal Baillargeau. He was using the PolarisBoostMAX with his WX7100. He experienced during a Valley run a hard crash, observing a powerdraw of 200W for a short while. So please avoid the settings with WX7100.

You can just download the version you want (it will work with every version of the Catalina Loader) and rename it or edit the config.plist and add the MAX version to your choice of extensions in the Kernel section - which ever way you want to go.

 

[tobym76]

No baking! You cannot return and become a baker at the same time

One LED means clearly that your system board cannot communicate any longer with the graphics card. And it may be really a sign of a dead or dying card. Have you seated the card firmly in the slot? Hardware problems cannot really be solved here. If you have the chance to return, then do it better sooner than later.

Do not like this, but a PRAM reset may sometimes help. A few days ago I had a 2011 with a K4100M in a boot chime loop, had had to disassemble and reassemble the complete system to get this error away. Cannot say what it causes. It was even impossible to do the PRAM reset because the system did "power on - chime - reboot - chime - reboot - chime ...." unless you pulled the power plug out of the wall....

Latest update. I reinstalled the 780m and got it back to being recognised, but still no working display. There's a chance it may be a thermal issue - when I removed it and checked the pattern of thermal grease on the heatsink, it wasn't as even as I would hope. But I ran out of good quality grease, so I can't verify. Meanwhile, I have reinstalled the original 2GB card (using the cheap thermal grease sent with the 780m) and the machine runs apparently perfectly.

During the week I will order more thermal grease and have one last try with the 780m.

BTW, one friend asked if the PSU can deliver sufficient power for both an i7 and a 780m? But I am pretty sure it can, especially since I moved to an SSD.

Today's battle has been trying to install Windows 10 without using Boot Camp Assistant (which, whatever I tried, refused to let me create a USB install disk). This process is proving quite painful, but I know it's off-topic for this thread, so I won't bore with the details!

Toby

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Latest update. I reinstalled the 780m and got it back to being recognised, but still no working display. There's a chance it may be a thermal issue - when I removed it and checked the pattern of thermal grease on the heatsink, it wasn't as even as I would hope. But I ran out of good quality grease, so I can't verify. Meanwhile, I have reinstalled the original 2GB card (using the cheap thermal grease sent with the 780m) and the machine runs apparently perfectly.

During the week I will order more thermal grease and have one last try with the 780m.

BTW, one friend asked if the PSU can deliver sufficient power for both an i7 and a 780m? But I am pretty sure it can, especially since I moved to an SSD.

Today's battle has been trying to install Windows 10 without using Boot Camp Assistant (which, whatever I tried, refused to let me create a USB install disk). This process is proving quite painful, but I know it's off-topic for this thread, so I won't bore with the details!

Toby

Out if curiosity: You did the heat sink mod as shown on post #1 (attached picture there)? Otherwise the two big coils on the top of the card will touch the sink and do not allow a flat and flush sit of the GPU on the copper part of the sink! This may cause all your problems.

Yes, the PSU will be able to deliver the power for your 780M because the BIOS you have hopefully flashed in advance found on page one was limited to nearly 70W power draw. This is the budget the PSU can deliver and the amount of heat the sink and fans will be able to transport out of the case.

 

[tobym76]

Out if curiosity: You did the heat sink mod as shown on post #1 (attached picture there)?

Yes, I did the mod as required. I even took it a little bit further back than shown.

Thanks for the confirmation about the power drawn.

I am increasingly suspicious that this 780m was dodgy. But I want to give one last try before I return it!

 

[Terros]

Hello!

Having a similar setup and currently no issues with the boot picker and the choice of other OS versions. I use macOS Catalina and Mojave and Windows 10 UEFI (once in a while). You tried the magic PRAM reset, which you probably once made to enable the card after installing it (this is just a guess, because I have really no other idea).

The card works even with the OpenCore boot picker I am using because of some other experimental stuff...
[automerge]1596367819[/automerge]

Nope Tried PRAM. SMC etc.

Anything not related to OSX boot doesn't work. Machine just locks up. If it's set to boot Windows at startup, it's just a blank grey/white screen.

Choosing anything other than OSX in the boot picker just freezes the machine on whatever you've selected.

I just flashed the card with NVFlash in Windows like I've always done for years (and prior to this bios)

Any other ideas? I don't have OpenCore but doubt that would make a difference. Seems like it fails to initialize anything other than OSX.

 

[atomizasser]

Thanks @nikey22 for these improved roms. Are you working in a ROM for GTX765m? Thanks

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Nope Tried PRAM. SMC etc.

Anything not related to OSX boot doesn't work. Machine just locks up. If it's set to boot Windows at startup, it's just a blank grey/white screen.

Choosing anything other than OSX in the boot picker just freezes the machine on whatever you've selected.

I just flashed the card with NVFlash in Windows like I've always done for years (and prior to this bios)

Any other ideas? I don't have OpenCore but doubt that would make a difference. Seems like it fails to initialize anything other than OSX.

Okay, my system has a Windows 10 UEFI installation and I experience after the initial blue start screen a 10-20s black screen unless the login screen comes up. This is different from the BIOS version before - Windows boot was faster and smoother before. But this is only during boot. But no real problems.

 

[ggwwzz11]

Hi Guys

I'm running a mid 2010 imac 27inch, Upgraded GPU to Nvidia GTX770M (From Dell Alienware) with flashed vbios after the original GPU failed. but I'm suffering the black screen (without gray booting screen/Apple logo until I enter my login password or hold option/Nvram reset) and sleep (Can't wait up) issues on Mojave and Catalina
I have tried to study though this entire thread. but it's really hard for me to read all because my English isn't as good. Also there are many posts are related with the hardware and other matters which makes even difficult for me.
However, I've seen a solution/patch exclusively for 2011 iMac. but no luck for me to find anything for 2010 model

Could anyone help me? Few links with relevant solution in my cases would be perfect, Many thanks for your help!

FYI, I was told the TDM will be disabled. but I'm very happy to found out it works greatly on HS (MacBook pro retina 13)

 

[highvoltage12v]

AppleGraphicsControl

Hi Guys

I'm running a mid 2010 imac 27inch, Upgraded GPU to Nvidia GTX770M (From Dell Alienware) with flashed vbios after the original GPU failed. but I'm suffering the black screen (without gray booting screen/Apple logo until I enter my login password or hold option/Nvram reset) and sleep (Can't wait up) issues on Mojave and Catalina
I have tried to study though this entire thread. but it's really hard for me to read all because my English isn't as good. Also there are many posts are related with the hardware and other matters which makes even difficult for me.
However, I've seen a solution/patch exclusively for 2011 iMac. but no luck for me to find anything for 2010 model

Could anyone help me? Few links with relevant solution in my cases would be perfect, Many thanks for your help!
View attachment 939888
FYI, I was told the TDM will be disabled. but I'm very happy to found out it works greatly on HS (MacBook pro retina 13)

Sounds like you need a copy of AppleGraphicsControl you need to boot using the alt/option key to get your LCD to turn on to boot. Install the Kext using Kext Utility.

 

[Cordonblu]

Has anybody managed to get sidecar working without the free-sidecar script? Because I can select the sidecar option using usb or wifi but the ipad screen stays grey the whole time.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Has anybody managed to get sidecar working without the free-sidecar script? Because I can select the sidecar option using usb or wifi but the ipad screen stays grey the whole time.

To my knowledge sidecar needs HEVC support by CPU (Intel sixth. gen) or GPU (AMD Polaris). Your Sandy Bridge CPU and K4100M Kepler GPU cannot deliver this.

Although with my WX4170, and HEVC enabled, and even in wired mode I do not get it working, too. I see all the time a small popup showing "unknown error -455". Did not spend much time into this until now.

I tried this in the terminal here too without success:

defaults write com.apple.sidecar.display AllowAllDevices -bool true; defaults write com.apple.sidecar.display hasShownPref -bool true; open /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Sidecar.prefPane

EDIT:
After enabling a trust relationship between iMac and iPad I get it connected with a black screen on the iPad. The link provides some help on SideCar errors with Catalina...I can use the iPad onscreen keyboard to type on the iMac. But no display right now. This is small step ahead, though

EDIT, EDIT:
Found this post @jackluke made in another thread here...you will find there some patches for different Catalina versions. Will check it out later.

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

Thank you, here are the correct dimensions of the hdd fan to adjust to the 3d file that has been posted several pages ago:

Hi,
Could you share this new 3D file with the correct dimensions?

 

[Cordonblu]

To my knowledge sidecar needs HEVC support by CPU (Intel sixth. gen) or GPU (AMD Polaris). Your Sandy Bridge CPU and K4100M Kepler GPU cannot deliver this.

Although with my WX4170, and HEVC enabled, and even in wired mode I do not get it working, too. I see all the time a small popup showing "unknown error -455". Did not spend much time into this until now.

I tried this in the terminal here too without success:

defaults write com.apple.sidecar.display AllowAllDevices -bool true; defaults write com.apple.sidecar.display hasShownPref -bool true; open /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Sidecar.prefPane

Yeah I'm facing the same error code, no further logs provided by the system and google just provides random solutions that don't work, I'll just assume that sidecar is bugged.

 

[herrdude]

I have successfully completed the K1100M swap into my 2011 iMac 27" originally with a 6970M that had died.

I decided to document my entire process HERE.

So far, everything seems to work. I had lost audio after the Patched Catalina Installer, but have fixed it after doing an unpatch/repatch detailed in my write-up.

It's good that you did a complete write-up on the process. However, you should be giving credit to this site, this thread, and people in this thread. It gives the impression that you did all of the work on your own, which is simply not true.

 

[Cordonblu]

To my knowledge sidecar needs HEVC support by CPU (Intel sixth. gen) or GPU (AMD Polaris). Your Sandy Bridge CPU and K4100M Kepler GPU cannot deliver this.

Although with my WX4170, and HEVC enabled, and even in wired mode I do not get it working, too. I see all the time a small popup showing "unknown error -455". Did not spend much time into this until now.

I tried this in the terminal here too without success:

defaults write com.apple.sidecar.display AllowAllDevices -bool true; defaults write com.apple.sidecar.display hasShownPref -bool true; open /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Sidecar.prefPane

EDIT:
After enabling a trust relationship between iMac and iPad I get it connected with a black screen on the iPad. The link provides some help on SideCar errors with Catalina...I can use the iPad onscreen keyboard to type on the iMac. But no display right now. This is small step ahead, though

EDIT, EDIT:
Found this post @jackluke made in another thread here...you will find there some patches for different Catalina versions. Will check it out later.

Yes I saw that post yesterday when I was googling around, I think I will install a secondary catalina in a ssd to test this and I will report the results, I will also test the free-sidecar script.

 

[dstd123]

Hi,
Could you share this new 3D file with the correct dimensions?

I have uploaded the correct size of the fan air vent in to 2 pics say to the shop to enlarge the 3d image according to those dimensions seen in the pics. I dont have the 3d file to upload.

 

[hwc]

It's good that you did a complete write-up on the process. However, you should be giving credit to this site, this thread, and people in this thread. It gives the impression that you did all of the work on your own, which is simply not true.

Thank you very much! Yes, it is definitely true that majority of the help is due to this forum. My list of required files are links in which go directly to the user's post here in this thread. This is so that they know who created/compiled the list of files and their post itself. None of my links go directly to the file itself, but rather the source of it.

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

I have uploaded the correct size of the fan air vent in to 2 pics say to the shop to enlarge the 3d image according to those dimensions seen in the pics. I dont have the 3d file to upload.

Ok.
I just wanted to avoid to modify 3D image if it was already done.
Thanks for the answer.

 

[dstd123]

Ok.
I just wanted to avoid to modify 3D image if it was already done.
Thanks for the answer.

I understand, the shop did it and i dont have the modified file (sorry)

 

[ggwwzz11]

AppleGraphicsControl
Sounds like you need a copy of AppleGraphicsControl you need to boot using the alt/option key to get your LCD to turn on to boot. Install the Kext using Kext Utility.

Thanks a lot for your help! Now it shows the login interface instead of enter password blindfolded
However, unlike with the normal routine It still had pretty long black screen after the chime and shows the apple logo loading quickly. Maybe something to do the vbios.
Anyway, my black screen issue (Not sure about the sleep matter, I will update after a test) had been solved on the latest Mojave build. Thanks again!

 

[highvoltage12v]

Thanks a lot for your help! Now it shows the login interface instead of enter password blindfolded
However, unlike with the normal routine It still had pretty long black screen after the chime and shows the apple logo loading quickly. Maybe something to do the vbios.
Anyway, my black screen issue (Not sure about the sleep matter, I will update after a test) had been solved on the latest Mojave build. Thanks again!
View attachment 940094

Yeah the first blank screen issue on boot is just how the original VBIOS was implemented. I believe parts of it came from the Mac Pro 5,1gtx680 so when used on an iMac, the VBIOS has a delay which doesn't match up with the iMacs initialization sequence. A new VBIOS will need to be created for this, but I don't want to nag/ETA anyone.

You can fix your long boot issue issue by going to System preferences/ startup disk and choosing your correct startup disk, this will massively improve boot times.