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

[bielousov.com]

Just wanna thank this forum and share some of my experience where I thought I killed the 780M.
Mind that I have 2x 500GB SSDs running in RAID0 on both 6Gbps interfaces of my iMac, due to which I have problematic access to Recovery partition, or installing any updates from OS.

I've got the Alienware 780M about a month ago, plugged it in (with some sanding of the heatsink and only using thermal paste, no pads). It magically worked (no bootloader or brightness obviously), however after about 3 weeks on the morning after somewhat longer than usual gaming night the iMac shut down throwing some blue-ish artifacts on the screen while just browsing and it wouldn't start again (infinite chime loop).

NVRAM reset didn't help, so…
I took the screen off and figured that I only get 2 LEDs, and without the screen connected the OS is loading, I could even blindly type in my password and turn on some itunes music. With the screen connected though I was getting a chime loop still. Most worrisome was that the card was working just fine, and now I had 2 LEDs on the logic board (I didn't pay attention at how the LEDs were when I initially installed it). At the same time OEM 6970M worked just fine and had 3 LEDs though.

So I really thought it was dead now.
Baked the card. No good.

Well I almost accepted my lost. Just as one final thing I managed to come up with a setup for the Linux nvflash: used old router for DHCP, used 2009 MBP for its LAN, but now I could select Linux USB in Target boot mode with OEM GPU, but not (blindly) with the 780M. That was a bummer. Until I disconnected my SSDs as per Linux USB method guide. And then… well from that point everything worked just fine: Linux loaded with 780M, MBP ssh-ed and reflashed it, the 3rd LED turned on immediately after reboot, and when re-assembled everything was warking as before + I've got bootload.

This wouldn't be possible without this thread, so thank y'all.
And especially to xanderon

 

[BeatCrazy]

Having a brain fart today. How can I take the 0.6.2 OC .dmg and make it read/write? It's stuck for me in read only.

I'm trying to create a new OpenCore image, and I know what I need to edit. Just can't remember how to make it editable, and turn it into a mountable image.

 

[elise_s1]

Having a brain fart today. How can I take the 0.6.2 OC .dmg and make it read/write? It's stuck for me in read only.

I'm trying to create a new OpenCore image, and I know what I need to edit. Just can't remember how to make it editable, and turn it into a mountable image.

first mount it, then edit.

 

[BeatCrazy]

first mount it, then edit.

Thank you. Somehow I forgot all about hdiutil attach /path/to/diskimage.dmg

 

[jay508]

Ask for help A1312 2011 i5 2500s uses the normal update software to restart the screen and it does not show the disassembly, power on, there is a duang prompt sound to see the motherboard only the front two LED lights are on, replace multiple graphics cards are the same, make sure the display is good, this is What's the problem?
May I ask where the BIOS chip of the motherboard of this machine is located. Can anyone share the motherboard BIOS program? I have a programmer to flash the motherboard BIOS.

@Nick [D]vB, @nikey22@highvoltage12v @StephN999@highvoltage12v

 

[kral84]

@Ausdauersportler Must i Install it ...

1. vit9696 WhateverGreen and Lilu (all iMacs, all graphics cards)

when i use opencore loader 0.6.2 or must i unset it on opencore ? and I have to boot without opencore first to the OS , then install, and then boot again with opencore right?

 

[KennyW]

Ask for help A1312 2011 i5 2500s uses the normal update software to restart the screen and it does not show the disassembly, power on, there is a duang prompt sound to see the motherboard only the front two LED lights are on, replace multiple graphics cards are the same, make sure the display is good, this is What's the problem?
May I ask where the BIOS chip of the motherboard of this machine is located. Can anyone share the motherboard BIOS program? I have a programmer to flash the motherboard BIOS.

@Nick [D]vB, @nikey22@highvoltage12v @StephN999@highvoltage12v

These are the efi bios chip locations on iMac motherboards that I found while researching for where to flash the bios of my iMac 2010 directly with the ch341a programmer.

A1312 27" 2009


A1312 27" 2010


A1312 27" 2011


A1311 21.5" 2010


A1311 21.5" 2011


Unfortunately, there is still yet no easy tool for iMac like the Solderless EFI Chip for fast BIOS recovery for the others:

EFI Card Instant (Solderless EFI Chip) for MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini and Mac Pro | Macunlocks

www.macunlocks.com

Luckily, the firmware update in OpenCore Loader has been DISABLED to avoid such disaster during Catalina install.

 

[Lady Titan]

** NVIDIA Geforce GTX880M Mac Edition ROM **
** NVIDIA Geforce GTX870M Mac Edition ROM **
** NVIDIA Geforce GTX860M Mac Edition ROM **
Genuine Native Boot Screen & Brightness Control​

View attachment 942200


The following are the UGA equipped roms I put together:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M
N15E-GX-A2, MXM-B (3.0)
8GB VRAM

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M
N15E-GT-A2, MXM-B (3.0)
non-functional ROMs:
80.04.EF.00.A2 (MSI)
80.04.F7.00.0C (MSI)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M
Kepler (GK104) N15P-GX-B-A2
Base ROMs:
80.04.F5.00.06
80.04.E8.00.0D
80.04.E9.00.03
Maxwell (GM107) N15P-GX-A1? - non-function with MacOS; cannot trust sources with GPU Variant
Base ROMs:
82.07.24.00.19
82.07.34.00.03
82.07.34.00.08
82.07.49.00.05

The GTX880M is the first 8GB VRAM card to work in our machines! I now have as much vram as system ram. I'm happy to report that macOS sees all the ram. It is boosting fully even at base clock speeds. When I purchased this card, the rivets were very long and kept too much of the GPU away from the heatsink surface. It was thermal throttling early as it sensed an overheat situation. When I removed the rivets, and used screws to secure it, I was able to get a much tighter seal and the card boosted properly.

Tested on a 2011 iMac using High Sierra 10.13.6. Please feel free to test on other MacOS versions, I will update this post as necessary with success/failures.

• These ROMs do not require a 3rd party bootloader like OpenCore.
• They will require a modification of the base AppleIntelPanelA/ApplePanels/F10Ta007 brightness stepping.
• The frame-buffer depth issues remains for now, and can be temporarily corrected by entering a sleep cycle.

As previous, these roms should bring back:

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

Brightness Control Stepping Modifcation

-Turn computer on, hold down Command(⌘)-R
-Choose Utilities > Terminal
-Enter:csrutil disable
-Reboot
-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> ABEABgALABQAHAAnADMAPwBOAFwAZwBzAIEAkQClAL8A 2wD/ </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

**update 9/4/2020**
please note the 870M_6GB_UGA.rom is experimental and in testing phases for those interested and have the card.


"insanely great!"
-Steve Jobs

View attachment 940773 View attachment 940774

Hello genius! tell me if there are any updates? will the video card GTX880m run at full capacity one day?

 

[Underbeat88]

Hello. After updating from a GTX 765 video card to a K4100M, an incorrect display appeared on my display, namely the display, because the same image is displayed well in Windows. Here is a photo of what I see from my phone, and here is a screenshot from imac. What could be the reason for this?

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

Just wondering if this extension could make iMac 21,5'' 2009 compatible with our hacked graphic cards. It's a SSE4.2 instructions emulator. I do not own a such a 2009 iMac 21,5'', so i cannot verify this.

"
*** What is it?
Newer AMD Mac video drivers use some SSE 4.2 instructions. Older CPUs (Penryn, Harpertown, and earlier) don't support those instructions. Older Mac Pro systems (such as the Mac Pro 3,1) use those older CPUs - therefore, the new AMD drivers won't work in those systems. MouSSE is a partial SSE4.2 emulator that allows those old CPUs to use the newer AMD drivers. While its primary focus has always been making the AMD drivers work, it also appears to allow World of Warcraft to run on a Mac Pro 3,1 regardless of whether or not AMD drivers are in use.

In theory, depending upon what you're trying to accomplish, this emulator could prove useful on any Mac system with a Penryn/Harpertown/Wolfdale CPU. These include:
Mac Pro 3,1 (Early 2008)
Xserve 2,1 (Early 2008)
MacBook Pro 4,1 (Early 2008)
MacBook 4,1 (Early 2008)
MacBook 7,1 (Mid-2010)
MacBook Air 2,1 (October 2008)
MacBook Air 3,1 (October 2010) (11")
MacBook Air 3,2 (October 2010) (13")
iMac 8,1 (April 2008)
iMac 9,1 (March 2009)
iMac 10,1 (October 2009) (with Core2 Duo, not i5)
Mac Mini 3,1 (March 2009, October 2009)
Mac Mini 4,1 (Mid 2010) (aka Mac Mini Server)
Not all of these have been tested; your mileage may vary. In addition, CPUs even older than Penryn could utilize this emulator; however, since they lack SSE4.1, adding only partial SSE4.2 would probably be of little or no benefit.
"

 

[Ausdauersportler]

@Ausdauersportler Must i Install it ...

1. vit9696 WhateverGreen and Lilu (all iMacs, all graphics cards)

when i use opencore loader 0.6.2 or must i unset it on opencore ? and I have to boot without opencore first to the OS , then install, and then boot again with opencore right?

Users of OpenCore should not install this to disk. They are better of with the injection through OpenCore!

But we have in these days more card types not needing OpenCore than the other way around. So for these I included this OPTION!

If you install this to disk (like FakeSMC) you have to disable it on the OpenCore.

This is a Hackintosh, you need to understand what you are doing!

 

[xanderon]

Hello. After updating from a GTX 765 video card to a K4100M, an incorrect display appeared on my display, namely the display, because the same image is displayed well in Windows. Here is a photo of what I see from my phone, and here is a screenshot from imac. What could be the reason for this?

i have exactly the same effect on gradients with my k4100m, had not time to report it. but now I can quote this

 

[adamnski]

Hello! Just started an attempt to update my 27" iMac 2011 (A1312) with a K4100. With the new card installed, when I press the power button fans turn on and second LED flashes briefly, then this repeats. From what I've managed to find in the thread a short on the GPU is the likely culprit. So I removed the heatsink and tried to boot with the GPU installed without a heatsink. Same thing. Reverted back to my original card, but still second led only flashing briefly. Could a GPU short have damaged the PSU or logic board? Or does anyone have any suggestions on what to do?

I should be able to get a solid light from the second LED without the GPU heatsink installed and with the LCD completely disconnected right?

 

[Ed Hartouni]

while it's probably not totally relevant... and will change... the date on the "Preamble (Latest Changes..." on post1/page1 should be "10/30/2020"

 

[Underbeat88]

i have exactly the same effect on gradients with my k4100m, had not time to report it. but now I can quote this

It really gets in the way because I am working in Photoshop.
I also noticed that there is no such effect in Windows. Attempts to preinstall a new system gave nothing (((((
Can anyone come across this problem and find a solution?

 

[adamnski]

Hello! Just started an attempt to update my 27" iMac 2011 (A1312) with a K4100. With the new card installed, when I press the power button fans turn on and second LED flashes briefly, then this repeats. From what I've managed to find in the thread a short on the GPU is the likely culprit. So I removed the heatsink and tried to boot with the GPU installed without a heatsink. Same thing. Reverted back to my original card, but still second led only flashing briefly. Could a GPU short have damaged the PSU or logic board? Or does anyone have any suggestions on what to do?

I should be able to get a solid light from the second LED without the GPU heatsink installed and with the LCD completely disconnected right?

Removing the battery made the 2nd led turn on again both without card and with old card reinstalled. But still no LED#2 with new card. Can I conclude the K4100 is bad? I guess there isn't really any way for me to check since I have no old HP laptop lying around...

 

[elise_s1]

Seeking for Beta Test Users (Package Installer)
(Catalina iMac 2011 sleep/AGC/iGPU/backlightfixup installer)
​

@Ausdauersportler let me get it right:
with my configuration (2010), will this package (if working) do the same as the OpenCore (Catalina Loader)?
Basically the OpenCore is needed only for the black screen at startup and brightness control.
If that's the case I will try it straight away

 

[theo-tasi]

Finally success with the third WX7100.

Hello everyone!

I have been following this thread for about one year now and for six months ago I decided to go with WX7100.
Here is my story.

First card: WX7100 "C" model. Second LED off. Just a short spin on the fans and then nothing.

Second card: WX7100 "D" model. I tested when it came and second LED on.
I prepared the computer to start with Catalina loader. Flashed with clip method, installed and the machine started with open core boot loader. I chose ssd and the start process started but when the GPU was to be connected, I got a black screen.
I do not remember how many times I flash and re flash the card, and how many different OC configurations I tried.
The results were the same.
In the end, the card ended up as card "C" but with a slightly different behavior. Second LED off, fans ran for about 5 sec and stopped. Up again for about 10 sec and then nothing.

I was disappointed and decided to leave the project aside.

”The positive from this process is that I found a way to change the GPU (2011 model), in less than ten minutes without removing any other than the screen and BT card. But you have to be willing to live with three 6mm holes on the back of your Mac. I will return with that in a later post "

Because I got money back for one of the cards I decided to give it another try.

Card No. 3: WX7100 "D". Same result as before. Boot with OC and then Black screen.
I removed SD with Catarina Loader and restarted. Black screen!
At that time, another Imac of the same model had come home. Coupled with thunderbolt, hit cmd + 2 and .. screen illuminates and Sigh Sierra log in window sows up. What a relief.

At this point I began to wonder if the Second card was bad or it was me who messed up everything.
It will never be answered.

I logged in and after a little more digging in the first post I was able to fix sleep and black screen issues in High Sierra. With Catarina Loader still black screen.
I deleted SD and reinstalled the same version of K.L (iMac open core loader). W.T.F .. Now working. I do not know how and why, but you can not rely on memory sticks for proper installation. I recommend having more than one usb / SD on hands to try before trying anything else. I wish I knew that sooner.


I installed Catalina on a second ssd and after following @highvoltage12v guide from the first post, got Catalina running smoothly with no issues so far.

However, two problems remain.

1.With the Open Core computer restarts each time after sleep.
2.Without the Open Core, GPUs Core Clock stays at 300MHz after sleep.

For the first one I do not use Open Core anymore. I do not need Boot screen. I can change the boot disk från inside the system. The negative is the lack of HEVC acceleration on Catalina.

For the second one, I don’t see any difference in performance in every day use, plus that GPU temps stays below 55c whatever I do.
If I need the foul power of GPU I can always restart.


I ran sam Valley tests after restart and after sleep / wake with High Sierra. Se Attachments.
Similar behavior on Catalina with 10% lower scores on Valley.



Geekbench 5 scores On Katalina

	After restart	After sleep/wake	With Open Core
Metal	37313	12905	24150
Open GL	38514	11601	24442

So, my thoughts about WX7100? Well I think is a little off a overkill for those machines.
Don’t get me wrong. I love this card. Is just that, att, same times I feel that have put a Ferrari engine in a Fiat to drive home - work-home.

I would like to thank everyone on this forum who, with their advices, made this possible.
Special thanks to @Nick [D]vB, @nikey22, @herrdude @Ausdauersportlerand @highvoltage12v. Keep going.


EDIT. Just av curiosity I tryed to ran Valley with OC 0.6.2 and AMD.MAX plist som config.plist. OMG everything get crazy.
GPU over 90c, fans att ful speed and finally an loud ”klick” från inside and shut down. All that within 30 seconds.
Att the moment thought that PCU was blow up but thankfully after removing SD everything was Ok.
DONT TRY THIS WITH WX7100!

 

[Ausdauersportler]

@Ausdauersportler let me get it right:
with my configuration (2010), will this package (if working) do the same as the OpenCore (Catalina Loader)?
Basically the OpenCore is needed only for the black screen at startup and brightness control.
If that's the case I will try it straight away

No!

Did you install the sleep and iGPU patches?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Finally success with the third WX7100.

Hello everyone!

I have been following this thread for about one year now and for six months ago I decided to go with WX7100.
Here is my story.

First card: WX7100 "C" model. Second LED off. Just a short spin on the fans and then nothing.

Second card: WX7100 "D" model. I tested when it came and second LED on.
I prepared the computer to start with Catalina loader. Flashed with clip method, installed and the machine started with open core boot loader. I chose ssd and the start process started but when the GPU was to be connected, I got a black screen.
I do not remember how many times I flash and re flash the card, and how many different OC configurations I tried.
The results were the same.
In the end, the card ended up as card "C" but with a slightly different behavior. Second LED off, fans ran for about 5 sec and stopped. Up again for about 10 sec and then nothing.

I was disappointed and decided to leave the project aside.

”The positive from this process is that I found a way to change the GPU (2011 model), in less than ten minutes without removing any other than the screen and BT card. But you have to be willing to live with three 6mm holes on the back of your Mac. I will return with that in a later post "

Because I got money back for one of the cards I decided to give it another try.

Card No. 3: WX7100 "D". Same result as before. Boot with OC and then Black screen.
I removed SD with Catarina Loader and restarted. Black screen!
At that time, another Imac of the same model had come home. Coupled with thunderbolt, hit cmd + 2 and .. screen illuminates and Sigh Sierra log in window sows up. What a relief.

At this point I began to wonder if the Second card was bad or it was me who messed up everything.
It will never be answered.

I logged in and after a little more digging in the first post I was able to fix sleep and black screen issues in High Sierra. With Catarina Loader still black screen.
I deleted SD and reinstalled the same version of K.L (iMac open core loader). W.T.F .. Now working. I do not know how and why, but you can not rely on memory sticks for proper installation. I recommend having more than one usb / SD on hands to try before trying anything else. I wish I knew that sooner.


I installed Catalina on a second ssd and after following @highvoltage12v guide from the first post, got Catalina running smoothly with no issues so far.

However, two problems remain.

1.With the Open Core computer restarts each time after sleep.
2.Without the Open Core, GPUs Core Clock stays at 300MHz after sleep.

For the first one I do not use Open Core anymore. I do not need Boot screen. I can change the boot disk från inside the system. The negative is the lack of HEVC acceleration on Catalina.

For the second one, I don’t see any difference in performance in every day use, plus that GPU temps stays below 55c whatever I do.
If I need the foul power of GPU I can always restart.


I ran sam Valley tests after restart and after sleep / wake with High Sierra. Se Attachments.
Similar behavior on Catalina with 10% lower scores on Valley.



Geekbench 5 scores On Katalina

	After restart	After sleep/wake	With Open Core
Metal	37313	12905	24150
Open GL	38514	11601	24442

So, my thoughts about WX7100? Well I think is a little off a overkill for those machines.
Don’t get me wrong. I love this card. Is just that, att, same times I feel that have put a Ferrari engine in a Fiat to drive home - work-home.

I would like to thank everyone on this forum who, with their advices, made this possible.
Special thanks to @Nick [D]vB, @nikey22, @herrdude @Ausdauersportlerand @highvoltage12v. Keep going.


EDIT. Just av curiosity I tryed to ran Valley with OC 0.6.2 and AMD.MAX plist som config.plist. OMG everything get crazy.
GPU over 90c, fans att ful speed and finally an loud ”klick” från inside and shut down. All that within 30 seconds.
Att the moment thought that PCU was blow up but thankfully after removing SD everything was Ok.
DONT TRY THIS WITH WX7100!

Read carefully the installation guide made for the sleep patches and the 2011.
You need OpenCore to get stable results and to use AMD graphics acceleration. Read the Catalina Loader Guide I wrote some months ago.

There is no way around this.

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

Finally success with the third WX7100.

Hello everyone!

I have been following this thread for about one year now and for six months ago I decided to go with WX7100.
Here is my story.

First card: WX7100 "C" model. Second LED off. Just a short spin on the fans and then nothing.

Second card: WX7100 "D" model. I tested when it came and second LED on.
I prepared the computer to start with Catalina loader. Flashed with clip method, installed and the machine started with open core boot loader. I chose ssd and the start process started but when the GPU was to be connected, I got a black screen.
I do not remember how many times I flash and re flash the card, and how many different OC configurations I tried.
The results were the same.
In the end, the card ended up as card "C" but with a slightly different behavior. Second LED off, fans ran for about 5 sec and stopped. Up again for about 10 sec and then nothing.

I was disappointed and decided to leave the project aside.

”The positive from this process is that I found a way to change the GPU (2011 model), in less than ten minutes without removing any other than the screen and BT card. But you have to be willing to live with three 6mm holes on the back of your Mac. I will return with that in a later post "

Because I got money back for one of the cards I decided to give it another try.

Card No. 3: WX7100 "D". Same result as before. Boot with OC and then Black screen.
I removed SD with Catarina Loader and restarted. Black screen!
At that time, another Imac of the same model had come home. Coupled with thunderbolt, hit cmd + 2 and .. screen illuminates and Sigh Sierra log in window sows up. What a relief.

At this point I began to wonder if the Second card was bad or it was me who messed up everything.
It will never be answered.

I logged in and after a little more digging in the first post I was able to fix sleep and black screen issues in High Sierra. With Catarina Loader still black screen.
I deleted SD and reinstalled the same version of K.L (iMac open core loader). W.T.F .. Now working. I do not know how and why, but you can not rely on memory sticks for proper installation. I recommend having more than one usb / SD on hands to try before trying anything else. I wish I knew that sooner.


I installed Catalina on a second ssd and after following @highvoltage12v guide from the first post, got Catalina running smoothly with no issues so far.

However, two problems remain.

1.With the Open Core computer restarts each time after sleep.
2.Without the Open Core, GPUs Core Clock stays at 300MHz after sleep.

For the first one I do not use Open Core anymore. I do not need Boot screen. I can change the boot disk från inside the system. The negative is the lack of HEVC acceleration on Catalina.

For the second one, I don’t see any difference in performance in every day use, plus that GPU temps stays below 55c whatever I do.
If I need the foul power of GPU I can always restart.


I ran sam Valley tests after restart and after sleep / wake with High Sierra. Se Attachments.
Similar behavior on Catalina with 10% lower scores on Valley.



Geekbench 5 scores On Katalina

	After restart	After sleep/wake	With Open Core
Metal	37313	12905	24150
Open GL	38514	11601	24442

So, my thoughts about WX7100? Well I think is a little off a overkill for those machines.
Don’t get me wrong. I love this card. Is just that, att, same times I feel that have put a Ferrari engine in a Fiat to drive home - work-home.

I would like to thank everyone on this forum who, with their advices, made this possible.
Special thanks to @Nick [D]vB, @nikey22, @herrdude @Ausdauersportlerand @highvoltage12v. Keep going.


EDIT. Just av curiosity I tryed to ran Valley with OC 0.6.2 and AMD.MAX plist som config.plist. OMG everything get crazy.
GPU over 90c, fans att ful speed and finally an loud ”klick” från inside and shut down. All that within 30 seconds.
Att the moment thought that PCU was blow up but thankfully after removing SD everything was Ok.
DONT TRY THIS WITH WX7100!

Congrats for your success.
PolarisBoostMax is not to be used with WX7100, you'll end up in to high temps as you experienced. plain reboot because you hit the Max temp.

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

Finally success with the third WX7100.

Hello everyone!

I have been following this thread for about one year now and for six months ago I decided to go with WX7100.
Here is my story.

First card: WX7100 "C" model. Second LED off. Just a short spin on the fans and then nothing.

Second card: WX7100 "D" model. I tested when it came and second LED on.
I prepared the computer to start with Catalina loader. Flashed with clip method, installed and the machine started with open core boot loader. I chose ssd and the start process started but when the GPU was to be connected, I got a black screen.
I do not remember how many times I flash and re flash the card, and how many different OC configurations I tried.
The results were the same.
In the end, the card ended up as card "C" but with a slightly different behavior. Second LED off, fans ran for about 5 sec and stopped. Up again for about 10 sec and then nothing.

I was disappointed and decided to leave the project aside.

”The positive from this process is that I found a way to change the GPU (2011 model), in less than ten minutes without removing any other than the screen and BT card. But you have to be willing to live with three 6mm holes on the back of your Mac. I will return with that in a later post "

Because I got money back for one of the cards I decided to give it another try.

Card No. 3: WX7100 "D". Same result as before. Boot with OC and then Black screen.
I removed SD with Catarina Loader and restarted. Black screen!
At that time, another Imac of the same model had come home. Coupled with thunderbolt, hit cmd + 2 and .. screen illuminates and Sigh Sierra log in window sows up. What a relief.

At this point I began to wonder if the Second card was bad or it was me who messed up everything.
It will never be answered.

I logged in and after a little more digging in the first post I was able to fix sleep and black screen issues in High Sierra. With Catarina Loader still black screen.
I deleted SD and reinstalled the same version of K.L (iMac open core loader). W.T.F .. Now working. I do not know how and why, but you can not rely on memory sticks for proper installation. I recommend having more than one usb / SD on hands to try before trying anything else. I wish I knew that sooner.


I installed Catalina on a second ssd and after following @highvoltage12v guide from the first post, got Catalina running smoothly with no issues so far.

However, two problems remain.

1.With the Open Core computer restarts each time after sleep.
2.Without the Open Core, GPUs Core Clock stays at 300MHz after sleep.

For the first one I do not use Open Core anymore. I do not need Boot screen. I can change the boot disk från inside the system. The negative is the lack of HEVC acceleration on Catalina.

For the second one, I don’t see any difference in performance in every day use, plus that GPU temps stays below 55c whatever I do.
If I need the foul power of GPU I can always restart.


I ran sam Valley tests after restart and after sleep / wake with High Sierra. Se Attachments.
Similar behavior on Catalina with 10% lower scores on Valley.



Geekbench 5 scores On Katalina

	After restart	After sleep/wake	With Open Core
Metal	37313	12905	24150
Open GL	38514	11601	24442

So, my thoughts about WX7100? Well I think is a little off a overkill for those machines.
Don’t get me wrong. I love this card. Is just that, att, same times I feel that have put a Ferrari engine in a Fiat to drive home - work-home.

I would like to thank everyone on this forum who, with their advices, made this possible.
Special thanks to @Nick [D]vB, @nikey22, @herrdude @Ausdauersportlerand @highvoltage12v. Keep going.


EDIT. Just av curiosity I tryed to ran Valley with OC 0.6.2 and AMD.MAX plist som config.plist. OMG everything get crazy.
GPU over 90c, fans att ful speed and finally an loud ”klick” från inside and shut down. All that within 30 seconds.
Att the moment thought that PCU was blow up but thankfully after removing SD everything was Ok.
DONT TRY THIS WITH WX7100!

You can try this new PolarisBoost kext. It behave as Max for WX4130, WX4150, WX4170 but not for WX7100.

 

[theo-tasi]

You can try this new PolarisBoost kext. It behave as Max for WX4130, WX4150, WX4170 but not for WX7100.

We're to instal this, In OC?
There I have one

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I still cannot delete my own posts...

 

[elise_s1]

Did you install the sleep and iGPU patches?

I have a 21.5 iMac 11,2 (mid 2010) with Clarkdale CPU.
Aside from Dosdude1 install patches I did not install anything. Wake from sleep works without issues.
OpenCore is just needed for booting without pressing "alt" and to adjust brightness. All the rest is working fine.
Performance (both metal and openGL) is in line with other iMacs with the same GPU be it either with or without OpenCore. Temperatures are much lower with OpenCore (probably due to less heat from LCD panel and PSU).