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

[MarshallH]

Hey guys,
is it possible to put that GTX 765M GPU in iMac 21'5 mid 2010? Someone in the beginning of this topic showed that this type of MXM card fits in 21'5 2011 iMac. Maybe it also fits in the previous model but what about overheating or power issue? Did anyone test it?

You probably wouldn't get it in with a 3.5" HD, but i bet you could make it work with a SSD or 2.5" HD
As far as thermals, i don't think the heat-sink design changed a whole lot and the TDP of the 765M is a lot lower then the 780M (what the OP was using in his 2011 21.5"), so i think you would be fine. Remember to mod the heat-sink though

 

[thewojtekr]

You probably wouldn't get it in with a 3.5" HD, but i bet you could make it work with a SSD or 2.5" HD
As far as thermals, i don't think the heat-sink design changed a whole lot and the TDP of the 765M is a lot lower then the 780M (what the OP was using in his 2011 21.5"), so i think you would be fine. Remember to mod the heat-sink though

Thank you for fast reply. Is there any tutorial for heat-sink modification or creativity starts here?

 

[MarshallH]

Thank you for fast reply. Is there any tutorial for heat-sink modification or creativity starts here?

Creativity starts here
I have not seen a tutorial. I used a drill and removed as much as I could then I used a chisel to chip away the rest. By no means is this the best way.

 

[thewojtekr]

Creativity starts here
I have not seen a tutorial. I used a drill and removed as much as I could then I used a chisel to chip away the rest. By no means is this the best way.

Is this neccessary? The guy who I'm quoting below didn't make any changes to heatsink when he replaced MXM-A card with B type. In the picture presenting his iMac after upgrade I can see that there is also 3.5" HDD. Everything is posted on the first page of this thread. Sorry for my curiosity but I would like to leave everything as it was orginally if it's possible.

More details: If you use an MXM-B card it will be larger than the MXM-A card that the ATI is; so it will hang over the HDD. It doesn't cause any issues though, no modifications needed. During the install the heatsink from the ATI 6770M is a just a tiny bit too small, half of one of the ram chips will be uncovered. This doesn't seem to be a big deal as it is the chip positioned closest to HDD fan and I have been monitoring the heat sensors and they don't seem an higher that with the ATI card even playing graphics intensive games.

 

[MarshallH]

Is this neccessary? The guy who I'm quoting below didn't make any changes to heatsink when he replaced MXM-A card with B type. In the picture presenting his iMac after upgrade I can see that there is also 3.5" HDD. Everything is posted on the first page of this thread. Sorry for my curiosity but I would like to leave everything as it was orginally if it's possible.

Oh sorry it might not be necessary on the 21.5 seeing as the heat sink is only made for a mxm a card, I am more familiar with the 27". As long as the die on the graphics card make good contact with the copper plate on the heat sink you should be fine.
As far as the Hard Drive I have heard mixed story about whether it will work with a 3.5" and just rest on top or if you have to use a smaller drive. So you will have to see what works for you.

 

[thewojtekr]

Oh sorry it might not be necessary on the 21.5 seeing as the heat sink is only made for a mxm a card, I am more familiar with the 27". As long as the die on the graphics card make good contact with the copper plate on the heat sink you should be fine.
As far as the Hard Drive I have heard mixed story about whether it will work with a 3.5" and just rest on top or if you have to use a smaller drive. So you will have to see what works for you.

Okay. I will try it soon and give everyone update.

I have one more question. I'm going to put a SSD instead of optical drive and as I know from this thread there is no chance to get boot screen. Does it mean that I can't get to Disk Utility and OS installation? I would like to install OS on the SSD. Do I need to do this before upgrading iMac to a new GPU?

 

[MarshallH]

Okay. I will try it soon and give everyone update.

I have one more question. I'm going to put a SSD instead of optical drive and as I know from this thread there is no chance to get boot screen. Does it mean that I can't get to Disk Utility and OS installation? I would like to install OS on the SSD. Do I need to do this before upgrading iMac to a new GPU?

Yes you will need to either install Mac OS before you switch the graphics card or get a cable (like this one https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HJZJI84/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_K1wOBb846XK6K ) and install to the drive using another mac.
The 27" imac that I put a K3000M into had a bad GPU so I had to instal mac os using another mac.

 

[donluca]

To those who have the K3000M cards in their iMac 27": do external displays work? I need to attach two.

Also, does the K3000M support Metal and brightness control?

 

[MarshallH]

To those who have the K3000M cards in their iMac 27": do external displays work? I need to attach two.

Also, does the K3000M support Metal and brightness control?

I will check if external displays work, I think it supports metal but I will check that as well. I can say that it does not have brightness control, it is stuck at full brightness. However there is a work around, an app called shades http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/shades

 

[donluca]

Thanks man, I appreciate it.

Also, can you kindly try and see if this works for setting the brightness? https://github.com/Bensge/NativeDisplayBrightness

It's a way more elegant and proper way to change natively the monitor brightness instead of Shades.

 

[MarshallH]

Sure

Thanks man, I appreciate it.

Also, can you kindly try and see if this works for setting the brightness? https://github.com/Bensge/NativeDisplayBrightness

It's a way more elegant and proper way to change natively the monitor brightness instead of Shades.

Sure
[doublepost=1537311206][/doublepost]It does not appear to support Metal. NativeDisplayBrightness installs and the HUD appears on the screen but does nothing. Shades does work well though, and can be programmed to F1 & F2 keys.
I can not currently locate the MiniDisplayPort adapter I have at home, I will get back to you about multiple displays.

 

[donluca]

Sure

Sure
[doublepost=1537311206][/doublepost]It does not appear to support Metal. NativeDisplayBrightness installs and the HUD appears on the screen but does nothing. Shades does work well though, and can be programmed to F1 & F2 keys.
I can not currently locate the MiniDisplayPort adapter I have at home, I will get back to you about multiple displays.

Thanks for trying it out. But since it doesn't support Metal I'm not really interested in it

 

[MarshallH]

Thanks for trying it out. But since it doesn't support Metal I'm not really interested in it

Glad I could help, It's to bad it does not support Metal.

 

[FlorisVN]

Yes you will need to either install Mac OS before you switch the graphics card or get a cable (like this one https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HJZJI84/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_K1wOBb846XK6K ) and install to the drive using another mac.
The 27" imac that I put a K3000M into had a bad GPU so I had to instal mac os using another mac.

Why not use target disk mode ?
Start the iMac up with T key, then hook up firewire 800 cable to another Mac, and just install Macos like normal on the other mac.
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH25318?locale=nl_NL


When everything is done, turn off iMac and restart like normal..

 

[liquidtwitch]

Have you taken a bright flashlight to the screen? It's strange that it can detect the display with resolution. I'm thinking backlight isn't be turned on in Windows.

Bingo - just had another look whilst using TeamViewer instead of MS Remote Desktop and the screen is in fact on - there's just no backlight! I couldn't see the other day when it was daytime and MS remote desktop logs you out to a static login screen.

So now how in the hell do I force it to enable the backlight?

Mr-Mur - this might interest you!

 

[passatgt]

Bingo - just had another look whilst using TeamViewer instead of MS Remote Desktop and the screen is in fact on - there's just no backlight! I couldn't see the other day when it was daytime and MS remote desktop logs you out to a static login screen.

So now how in the hell do I force it to enable the backlight?

Mr-Mur - this might interest you!

Maybe Windows thinks its an external display, thats why theres no backlight?

 

[MarshallH]

Why not use target disk mode ?
Start the iMac up with T key, then hook up firewire 800 cable to another Mac, and just install Macos like normal on the other mac.
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH25318?locale=nl_NL


When everything is done, turn off iMac and restart like normal..

That's a great idea! I believe it works over ThunderBolt as well, correct? That could save a lot of time during trouble shooting.
[doublepost=1537370563][/doublepost]

Bingo - just had another look whilst using TeamViewer instead of MS Remote Desktop and the screen is in fact on - there's just no backlight! I couldn't see the other day when it was daytime and MS remote desktop logs you out to a static login screen.

So now how in the hell do I force it to enable the backlight?

Mr-Mur - this might interest you!

Are you using Boot camp drivers?

 

[FlorisVN]

That's a great idea! I believe it works over ThunderBolt as well, correct? That could save a lot of time during trouble shooting.
[doublepost=1537370563][/doublepost]
Are you using Boot camp d

That's a great idea! I believe it works over ThunderBolt as well, correct? That could save a lot of time during trouble shooting.
[doublepost=1537370563][/doublepost]
Are you using Boot camp drivers?

Yes that is correct indeed, target disk mode works for firewire and thunderbolt.

 

[highvoltage12v]

Maybe Windows thinks its an external display, thats why theres no backlight?

My theory is windows thinks it's a Display port device when in fact it's a EDP device. This is because the DCB tables are screwed up.

 

[liquidtwitch]

My theory is windows thinks it's a Display port device when in fact it's a EDP device. This is because the DCB tables are screwed up.

I think you're right. People with similar issues with hackintosh laptops have edited their display EDID to tweak the settings. I'm going to keep digging and see if I can find anymore info on that.

 

[FlorisVN]

but, windows does boot up.. ?

this way its at least possible to check temperatures of the mxm gpu, with for example remote desktop, teamvieuwer , vnc etc. ?

 

[liquidtwitch]

Long shot... but can someone with a working windows install/2011 iMac export their monitor settings as an inf for me?



https://www.entechtaiwan.com/files/mi_setup.exe

 

[passatgt]

Little update on my quest to find a card that can be flashed with an orig apple rom. I got a Dell 6770M 1GB card from Aliexpress which looked identical, however its not... The bios chip is Pm25LD512, which is 64kB, while the ROM pulled from the original Apple card is 128kB. So i'm not able to change the rom:

"Error: Image size (131072 B) doesn't match the flash chip's size (65536 B)!"

Do you think i can change the chip to Pm25LD010, which is 128kB and try again? Or thats not how it works?

Success! I replaced the chip with a 128kb Pm25LD010, flashed the 6770M rom i got from Techpowerup and i have boot screen! I still need to install OS and see if it works correctly, but so far so good Also, its a 512mb rom, but someone at techpowerup created a 1gb rom for me, so i'll try that too later.

 

[FlorisVN]

I recently bought a Nvidia GTX765M Dell card.
I hope this one will work in our iMac 27" 2011 model.

I will keep you guys posted about results, and my heatsink mod..

Can somebody here btw test and confirm Target disk mode is working, with a GPU withouth EFI Bootscreen.. ?
[doublepost=1537531927][/doublepost]Somebody here knows whats going on in this topic ? :
https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/t...in-imac-111-late-2009-display-brightness-fix/

They have changed some ACPI programming in MacOS here ?

It seams they have managed to get the display shown as internal imac display, aswell as brightness controll fully working..
How did they do this, anybody here got experience with this mod.. ?

 

[highvoltage12v]

I recently bought a Nvidia GTX765M Dell card.
I hope this one will work in our iMac 27" 2011 model.

I will keep you guys posted about results, and my heatsink mod..

Can somebody here btw test and confirm Target disk mode is working, with a GPU withouth EFI Bootscreen.. ?
[doublepost=1537531927][/doublepost]Somebody here knows whats going on in this topic ? :
https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/t...in-imac-111-late-2009-display-brightness-fix/

They have changed some ACPI programming in MacOS here ?

It seams they have managed to get the display shown as internal imac display, aswell as brightness controll fully working..
How did they do this, anybody here got experience with this mod.. ?

For sure Target disk mode does not work without boot screens, neither does internet recovery. I tried both via thunderbolt cable and firewire 800 cable. The iMac will ignore the commands and continues to boot. Even if you choose target disk mode in System preferences and restart.