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

[Felipe6667]

Hello!

I recently installed a Quadro K610M on the iMac Late 2009 C2D 27.

The vbios for the core i models unfortunately did not work, the screen turns on successfully but the bootpicker never appears and the system does not boot, however the HP vbios works, but with the known problems of no boot screen and no brightness control.

I am studying the operation of the DCB to see if I can improve the functionality of the card in the imac c2d, but so far I have not made any progress.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hello!

I recently installed a Quadro K610M on the iMac Late 2009 C2D 27.

The vbios for the core i models unfortunately did not work, the screen turns on successfully but the bootpicker never appears and the system does not boot, however the HP vbios works, but with the known problems of no boot screen and no brightness control.

I am studying the operation of the DCB to see if I can improve the functionality of the card in the imac c2d, but so far I have not made any progress.

This is really interesting news. Possibly you may also study the difference in the iMac firmware of the two different iMac Late 2009 models. Recently another users here flashed his Late 2009 with the Mid 2010 firmware to overcome some problems, mainly the black screen issue with most if not all Nvidia cards in such models. Of course this is a real brave experiment

So at least you have a (half) working Metal GPU and will be able to upgrade to Mojave, Catalina and Big Sur.

Edit: Added your post to the first post - we get once in a while requests about these machines.

 

[motorm3]

Not that this is going to help... but for all of you who are struggling through the GPU upgrade of your beloved iMac know that there have been at least 203 successful upgrades recorded on the Unigine Valley performance page from 4/24/2020 to 12/3/2020 (today of this post).

I went through the process of discovering that the first K1100M I bought was defective and had to buy another. I was lucky that the second one worked and I'm running Catalina on my 2011 21.5" iMac. It is work to figure out that you have a bad GPU board... especially because Mac users aren't used to doing anything like the hardware and software modifications required for this upgrade. Being systematic helps, also, having another (the original?) GPU card that works lets you eliminate many possible problems.

Of the 203 successfully upgraded iMacs, the distribution is:

2009 27"....... 28
2010 21.5".... 9
2010 27"....... 22
2011 21.5".... 26
2011 27".......122

the 27" has a lot of successful upgrades (172). I think this makes sense, those machines are truly meant to be upgraded. Also, 2011 was the apex of iMac upgradeability, that model year has 146 successes (something about the title of the thread?). [there may be double counting for entries that are posted for the same machine in different configurations, however, this means that the person doing the upgrade was successful at multiple modifications, so take heart!]

The successful upgrade GPU cards are:

K610M	5​		WX4130	10​
K1100M	14​		WX4150	1​
K2100M	43​		WX4170	19​
K1000M	2​		WX7100	15​
K2000M	1​		RX480	1​
K3100M	6​
K4100M	18​
K5000M	1​
K5100M	3​
GTX 765M	6​			​
GTX 770M	11​		HD 4670	1​
GTX 780M	20​		HD 4850	2​
GTX 880M	6​		HD 5670	2​
GTX 860M	2​		HD 5750	1​
GTX 870M	1​		HD 6750M	1​
			HD 6770M	6​
GTX 970	1​		HD 6970M	8​

(green means the card shows up on Page 1/Post 1!)

The K2100M has the been used the most, followed by the GTX 780M, WX4170, and K4100M .

This table will obviously change as time goes on...
...so not only is it possible to upgrade your iMac GPU, it has been done frequently at a rate of more than one successful upgrade a day since March 2020...

if I were to do it over again, I'd probably go with a WX4130... (or WX4150 depending on availability).

I have the quadro k3100m in my mid 2011 27 2600 imac. So if I wanna buy a quadro k5100m 8gb does it matter which one I buy or can it be any on ebay China new £200

 

[Zorrogarcia]

I am not so sure about the small crack as the culprit.
The BIOS chip should be the one near left upper corner below the screw hole.
It is a SOP8 chip that can hold the ch341a clip without a problem.
Rather, the glue at the four corners alerts me of a fake / refurnished module !
I have received a similar blue board for a presumably AMD WX4150 with these glues.
I examine the original BIOS which is flashed as HD5800 with extraction from my programmer.
It also boot-loops and not stops or works with new flashed BIOS, though yours is an nVidia.
Flash it and report.

Update: i'v flashed it , and i saw by the CH431A that the bios of the gpu was empty ! Now it works but i have another issue, the mac only see 1 gb of memory in the gpu . How can i fix it ?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Update: i'v flashed it , and i saw by the CH431A that the bios of the gpu was empty ! Now it works but i have another issue, the mac only see 1 gb of memory in the gpu . How can i fix it ?

LOL - another software fix for hardware...
Check the memory type on your card and count the chips and do the math - the pictures you made a bright and high res. Possibly you have a 1GB version.

 

[Ed Hartouni]

I got your same opinion that WX4130 would be the most cost-effective one and of higher performance than the nVidia, though I am biased with my "signature" you can observe. WX4130 has fewer variations in the market, and the two green Dell cards of v1.1 that I got work even unflashed, though without internal display. They are of the comparable price of the low end card of nVidia but performance-wise are much better in the Metal score (~4 fold) with more fluid Finder interface due to the deeper Metal API integration in Catalina, without the bit-depth issue of nVidia cards on startup. Our good developers have also tuned and enabled all the shaders as the WX4150 so that their performance are really very close. Getting a WX4150 is more like a lottery. I got two and both not working.

If you want a higher performance, the RX480 is really a better choice than the WX7100 at almost half its cost but near same performance. There seem to be only one version of the board and should be flashable consistently in 2009 & 2010, although unfortunately not so for 2011 which is more picky 😆 There are also good supply in the market of seemingly NEW cards from OEM factory. I think it matches just right for the iMac we own, might be even a little overkill for the apps we run in that 10 years old iMac. The extra $100 for the extra 4GB RAM for WX7100 is not worth it unless probably you are deeply into graphics or videos editing. If so, I would strongly advise to spend some more to get the M1 MacMini instead of a WX7100 for your vintage iMac.

But of course the choice and valuation (including the 27" screen) finally depend on one's usage pattern and targeted task. Just my subjective opinion with no direct working with the nVidia GPUs.

I removed that remark because I have a 2011 21.5" and as @Ausdauersportler has pointed out, upgrading with an WX4xxx is unlikely to succeed for this combination.

My choice of the K1100M was based on the state of the upgrade development in late spring 2020 and the TPD. This development has advanced quite a bit since then.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I removed that remark because I have a 2011 21.5" and as @Ausdauersportler has pointed out, upgrading with an WX4xxx is unlikely to succeed.

Fun fact:
There was post today about checking the cards in Late 2009 27 core2duo systems. At least the card works with the stock HP BIOS getting a Metal machine.

 

[Zorrogarcia]

LOL - another software fix for hardware...
Check the memory type on your card and count the chips and do the math - the pictures you made a bright and high res. Possibly you have a 1GB version.

I have 4 chips on the front and 4 chips on the back , so i should have 2 gb 😅
What should i have to do?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

This is unbelievable!
8 chips of what? South American sweet potato?

Check the number printed on your "chips", use google to get the size and then do this pre school task, again! Normally I would sent you the Golden Spoon of the week. But we are out of spoons....

 

[Zorrogarcia]

This is unbelievable!
8 chips of what? South American sweet potato?

Check the number printed on your "chips", use google to get the size and then do this pre school task, again! Normally I would sent you the Golden Spoon of the week. But we are out of spoons....

Hahhahahahahah
I'm sorry , please Forgive my ignorance.
I'v searched and all the chip have 2 Gb so 256 MB per Chip
So... 8 chips... 2048 MB --> 2GB memory 🥴

the chip model is : ELPIDA
W2032BBBG-6A-F

 

[BadBiscuit]

Hahhahahahahah
I'm sorry , please Forgive my ignorance.
I'v searched and all the chip have 2 Gb so 256 MB per Chip
So... 8 chips... 2048 MB --> 2GB memory 🥴

the chip model is : ELPIDA
W2032BBBG-6A-F

Discussed earlier by @jay508 :

2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade

There are several video memory versions of k2100m, and Samsung Hynix can correctly identify 2G video memory. Elpida version can only be 1G

forums.macrumors.com

Not sure why, but not the BIOS for I have one of four K2100M also only reporting 1GB, although loaded with the exact same BIOS as the others that all report 2GB. For comparison one of the ones reporting 2GB is also populated with 8 chips of size 2Gb:
chip model: Samsung
K4G20325FD-FC03

 

[passatgt]

Friends, this question goes to whoever installed the GTX 780M.

How to achieve maximum brightness?

iMac 27" Mid 2011 - i5 - 3.1 GHz - GPU - Nvidia GTX 780M - Flashed (nikey22 + xanderon method) - macOS Catalina - SSD 240GB + HD 1TB - 24GB RAM.

Thanks.

Its in the first post #8,044

 

[nekisha1]

so guys, I have a little gift for you to give back after such an incredible thread
hope you like it, the headaches to get it running were immens for me as a newb.

I couldn't stand it to use fckin windows to flash the cards and so I prepared this ~350mb drive

I created a Linux Live USB (based on grml.org) Thumb Drive with nvflash_linux and Nicks Bioses preloaded. and its booting by itself so you can work blind with a new unpatched nvidia card plugged in. Also, its starting a ssh daemon and using DHCP to get an IP so you can remote login

Steps

Download
14 days left to download, uploaded here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/cztz4xqj2sru9gj/2011_imac_usb.zip/file

mirror by NOTNICE, thnx: https://cloud.notnlce.com/index.php/s/xkJP34GD6a9WziE/download


Prepare USB Drive or SD Card
so, you take a small usb thumb drive, partition it with disk utility on a Mac: GPT + FAT32
and just unzip the files structure onto the drive, no dd or etcher or something. just copy paste it. folder structure see attached screenshot. (you can remove the .roms I downloaded and download itself if you want to be sure about the correct file size. I did not verify them at all. use/flash at your own risk please)

Test & Try
test your thumb drive with a more or less working GPU/ external Screen or just have faith in me

Swap Hardware
swap your GPU to NVIDIA and (!) disconnect every SSD/HDD, makes it easier to boot blindly from one USB or SD Card, connect the ETH Cable (!)

Find IP
let the iMac boot, everything is black, the boot loader is waiting 20s before booting, so give the whole process 1min time, then head over to your Router Page and find the right IP that the iMac got through DHCP

SSH to the iMac
now fire up your terminal on a Win/Mac/Linux Machine of your choice and ssh to your iMac with
ssh root@YOURIP
Password: flash
Confirm the ssh id with yes and you should be in your iMac

Working Directory
cd /lib/live/mount/medium/flash

read the RADME in there… I will enjoy my brand new k2000m in my 27" 2011 iMac with Catalina 10.15.3
… and because this is so easy, I rebuild it to a K1100M and flashed that also

(someone could write some fancy scripts but I thought its saver that everyone is doing it command by command and don't stop thinking and trusting some scripts)

My superhero. The type of user who saves the world for noobs.

 

[Zorrogarcia]

Discussed earlier by @jay508 :

2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade

There are several video memory versions of k2100m, and Samsung Hynix can correctly identify 2G video memory. Elpida version can only be 1G

forums.macrumors.com

Not sure why, but not the BIOS for I have one of four K2100M also only reporting 1GB, although loaded with the exact same BIOS as the others that all report 2GB. For comparison one of the ones reporting 2GB is also populated with 8 chips of size 2Gb:
chip model: Samsung
K4G20325FD-FC03

Thank u for the informations !
But ( according to you) , could this problem be fixed by a future bios update ? (Maybe a new release of nick's bios)
All in all according to me this is a victory and i learnt a lot of new things thank u all ! 😊 @Pacific1972 @BadBiscuit @Ausdauersportler @KennyW

 

[BadBiscuit]

Thank u for the informations !
But ( according to you) , could this problem be fixed by a future bios update ? (Maybe a new release of nick's bios)
All in all according to me this is a victory and i learnt a lot of new things thank u all ! 😊 @Pacific1972 @BadBiscuit @Ausdauersportler @KennyW

Indeed a victory when an iMac can continue on. Perhaps an updated BIOS and your K2100M could see all memory, but not with the current. Would be nice to know if with original BIOS it could within intended laptop. Unfortunately I’m not in a position to know, since I only have iMacs with MXM slots.

 

[vastunghia]

The third nearly identical message:
You possibly did not read the first post about the AMD cards, too. There is a 90% chance that these cards will not post in the 2011 model. But since you already bought it please report after installation if you got a bootable system.

I did read the first post.

I think the possibility here is that you did not read my message, actually, as

1. I still have not purchased the card
2. I have a 2010 model, not 2011
3. I was not asking for reassurances about this specific card reliability

On the contrary, my questions were

1. do I need TDM to kick-start?
2. do I need a copper plate?
3. any clues on the card being supported in Big Sur as well?

Coming back to the choice of the card, I am fully aware of the risks (as I read post 1, again). I have some faith though, as it looks exactly like the model that Nguyen Duc Hieu successfully installed (as reported here).

Thank you for taking the time to reply, anyway.

If I really go ahead and buy the card, for sure I will report back when I try it.

Sergio

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Will a 2011 27" boot fine without a GPU present in the machine? Ie. can I access it as a headless Mac and use it as such?

 

[passatgt]

Will a 2011 27" boot fine without a GPU present in the machine? Ie. can I access it as a headless Mac and use it as such?

no

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I did read the first post.

I think the possibility here is that you did not read my message, actually, as

1. I still have not purchased the card
2. I have a 2010 model, not 2011
3. I was not asking for reassurances about this specific card reliability

On the contrary, my questions were

1. do I need TDM to kick-start?
2. do I need a copper plate?
3. any clues on the card being supported in Big Sur as well?

Coming back to the choice of the card, I am fully aware of the risks (as I read post 1, again). I have some faith though, as it looks exactly like the model that Nguyen Duc Hieu successfully installed (as reported here).

Thank you for taking the time to reply, anyway.

If I really go ahead and buy the card, for sure I will report back when I try it.

Sergio

Hello Sergio!

I do not like to waste time on reassurance, too. We wrote all this to the thread and it‘s posts on purpose.

Doubting without evidence is the new religion of the time we live. I am sick of this. Nobody here wastes his time to post fairy tails about graphics cards. So why exactly are you asking?

Of course I would like to see you succeeding with your project. But do not let us examine cards by photos in advance.
About Big Sur read the first post, again.

Your still missed some of the important parts.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Will a 2011 27" boot fine without a GPU present in the machine? Ie. can I access it as a headless Mac and use it as such?

Yes, it will.

But it will not be able to drive the internal or an external display in graphics mode, but you can access the system remotely and through screen sharing with a limited screen resolution.

I must admit: Have done this never with the internal display connected, only during system testing without the LCD installed. Check it out. Not sure about the abilities of the HD3000 iGPU ...

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

WX4150 (109-C98581-10_02) Installation successful on an iMac 2010 21,5''. I used Dell RX 560 Gop Bios. I have now to swap the two WX4150 graphic cards between 2010 and 2011 21,5'' iMacs to verify behaviour on 2011.
I thought about taking photos this time. The original vbios is attached too

 

[GreyLotus]

Hello everybody, thanks for the 450+ pages of helpful support.

I'm having the following issue when trying to flash:
Upgrading my iMac 2010 i7 2,93 GHz from a HD5750 to a GTX780M.
First thing I did was try out the "Xanderon" method with the HD5750 still inside; just to make sure everything with SSH is working and the usb drive gets recognized as a bootable drive. No worries, I did not go as far as to execute the flash exe . Absolutely no issues here, Linux boots up from the stick just fine. I even took exact notes of how much time it needs to boot up, and when to hit the enter key, etc (knowing I will have to do this with a black screen later). SSH with ethernet connected to the iMac also works fine, even from the Termius app on my phone that's connected to the same router (root@iMacIP, pw: flash).

After that, took out the HD5750, built in the GTX780M (Heatsink modification was necessary too).High Sierra boots up just fine, new GPU is recognized.
So, I'm repeating the process that I've successfully tested above. I hold alt during startup; As expected, the screen just stays black. After 20-30 seconds, the iMac should have successfully entered the startup manager utility.

Now from here, absolutely NOTHING happens. It's almost as if my keyboard had stopped working. It's just not doing anything. I don't get it to boot at all.

I've already tried the following things:
- Unplug the internal SSD, so only the USB should be there to boot from -> no difference
- Unplug the USB to see if it would just boot from the internal SSD after hitting enter -> nothing happens
- Try different keyboards (wireless apple keyboard, as well as lenovo USB keyboard) -> same thing

Did anybody experience this problem and was able to solve it?

Further, haven't found anything regarding this, but can I update to Catalina using DosDude's patch without the flashed card? Or will I need the bootscreen for it? Meaning, can I possibly just skip the flashing, update to Catalina, and try the flashing from there?

Thanks in advance

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

After that, took out the HD5750, built in the GTX780M (Heatsink modification was necessary too).High Sierra boots up just fine, new GPU is recognized.

- Unplug the USB to see if it would just boot from the internal SSD after hitting enter -> nothing happens

I do not understand. High Sierra is booting or not?

 

[GreyLotus]

I do not understand. High Sierra is booting or not?

hi, it‘s booting works fine from normal bootup, but not from startup manager (screen just stays black, it‘s as if startup manager isn‘t accepting keyboard commands).

 

[Pacific1972]

hi, it‘s booting works fine from normal bootup, but not from startup manager (screen just stays black, it‘s as if startup manager isn‘t accepting keyboard commands).

Buy another Apple Keyboard with cable and if using a PC Keyboard look
at a real CMD Button (no WIN Button or SELECT Button) - there are a lot
of faults starting at the begin of the booting process 😁 with those kind
of hardware...