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

[Ausdauersportler]

I have a question relating to the original AMD card
Are they compatible with each other?
Specifically
The HD5670m is original in iMac 27" Mid 2010.
If I installed a known-to-be working HD5670m to an iMac 27" 2011, will it work and display boot screen as normall?
Some sellers I know in Vietnam says that it won't work.

But I saw a AMD video card (256MB) maybe from iMac 2008 installed in an iMac 2011 in place of a dead HD6970m, and seller said that it worked for a while before completely died.

Thank you for your attention to my silly question.

To my knowledge you can mix and match all the Late 2009 until Mid 2011 AMD Radeon 4xxx, 5xxx and 6xxx cards unless the fit into your system (MXM A or 21.5“ and both MXM-A and B for 27“ systems).
If you are still not sure consult other sources like ifixit.com and other threads here...

 

[jsusa]

I have a question relating to the original AMD card
Are they compatible with each other?
Specifically
The HD5670m is original in iMac 27" Mid 2010.
If I installed a known-to-be working HD5670m to an iMac 27" 2011, will it work and display boot screen as normall?
Some sellers I know in Vietnam says that it won't work.

But I saw a AMD video card (256MB) maybe from iMac 2008 installed in an iMac 2011 in place of a dead HD6970m, and seller said that it worked for a while before completely died.

Thank you for your attention to my silly question.

Yes, those AMD 4, 5 and 6 series are compatible.
I have AMD HD 5750 1 gb and AMD HD 6970 2 gb and I can swap them in my IMAC mid 2010 and 2011.
Always try to go up, not down. Buy some NVIDIA GTX or QUADRO and enjoy...

 

[vastunghia]

Ciao,

so to briefly recap previous episodes, and explain last steps I tried:

1. after installing an AMD WX4150, my 2010 21.5" iMac looked dead (no response at all to power-on button)
2. I de-assembled the graphics card again and used insulating tape all over it, just to exclude short circuits with the heatsink (see following pictures) as suggested:
   • front:

     
   • back:

     
3. as I mentioned before, I also put a 1mm copper plate on top of the GPU, with thermal paste on both sides (btw I also put thermal paste on the 4 RAM chips, is this correct?)
4. result: no change (iMac still dead)
5. I plugged off HDD and ODD, and now the system reacts to power-on button (one single chime, then after ~25 seconds fans start running at full speed) - nice that I didn't burn the whole house down after all!
6. so I plugged in the Linux USB (I tried both a USB stick and an SD card actually) + external display (via miniDS port), but the external display stays dark ("no signal")
7. I also looked at my router connections list, but Linux does not show up (tried the same with my working 2019 iMac, and it shows up nicely in the router connections list, and I'm able to ssh into it as well from a third computer)

[...]

You may disconnect all HD/SSD, connect the Linux Flash USB to a USB port, connect an external display to the miniDS port, and power up to see anything on the external display. If there is no chime sound, it usually means no POSTing or defective card. But still check whether you can SSH to your iMac to see whether you can flash the card or not.

Otherwise, flashing with Ch341a programmer may be the alternative option to try.

Thanks @KennyW, I guess the last step would be to try the CH341A programmer clip. Not sure I want to go much further in this adventure, this has taken me too much time already. And I'm skeptical on the possibility that things would change after flashing.

Currently, my plan is just to place the original graphics card in place as soon as I find the time. Though I may stil change my mind, of course, if anything else emerges from your feedbacks!

You could try removing the WX4150 again and power on the iMac without any graphics card installed.
If it actually powers up, you could then try to install the WX4150 without any heatsink at all.
In case the iMac does power up with the blank WX4150 installed you should power it off immediately and install the heatsink to it, paying special attention to avoid any short circuiting between the board components and the heat sink; you may use some adhesive tape to achieve this. A copper shim between the GPU die and the heat sink is necessary in almost any case; you'll find all necessary information regarding this in either the first post or some of the more recent ones.

Thanks a lot @internetzel, I think that there can be no short circuit whatsoever now. So it must be something else. But it was a good shot to try -- and indeed I tried it. Too bad it didn't work.

If you didn't flash the card, the machine will not power on.
[...]

Mmh @Nguyen Duc Hieu that's not my understanding. I prepared Windows with auto-login and TeamViewer after reading post #1, so I guess that the system is able to boot even with a non-flashed card onboard. Also, that's the working hypothesis underlying the Linux flash USB stick, isn't it? If I got this wrong, please correct me, as I may be completely lost without knowing it.

Thanks a lot to everybody. Any further hint / comment / suggestion is of course welcome.

Ciao

Sergio

 

[StephN999]

Bonjour,

without going into details, I had a little bit the same misadventure, I confirm one thing, if there is a short circuit, the power button does not work.

Me in my case, now with on without the graphics card, the 2nd green light comes on and then goes off, then it starts again 4 or 5 times and then nothing (the 1st light remains on).

Although I think more of a motherboard problem, I ordered a new power supply for the benefit of the doubt.

Otherwise I have reflashed with my programmer the graphics card in case it doesn't change.

Good luck in solving your problem.

Bonne journée.

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

Bonjour,

without going into details, I had a little bit the same misadventure, I confirm one thing, if there is a short circuit, the power button does not work.

Me in my case, now with on without the graphics card, the 2nd green light comes on and then goes off, then it starts again 4 or 5 times and then nothing (the 1st light remains on).

Although I think more of a motherboard problem, I ordered a new power supply for the benefit of the doubt.

Otherwise I have reflashed with my programmer the graphics card in case it doesn't change.

Good luck in solving your problem.

Bonne journée.

What happen to me recently is that i crushed the sdcard cable with a screw, remounting motherboard, then i had this kind of behavior. I had to change this sdcard cable to retrieve normal boot.

 

[StephN999]

Bonjour,

Thanks for the info, that's when we realize that there can be so many types of failures, that it's difficult to make a diagnosis, I would look at all the wiring, already I have a suspect SATA power cable, that's to say...



Edit: Big tiredness it's a data cable, not a power cable...

 

[FlorisVN]

Hi, that guy dimensions are WRONG. I have printed for my imac late 2011 but it was smaller!
Here are the correct dimensions of the hdd fan to adjust to the 3d file that has been posted several pages ago to anyone thats interested.
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

ok great, thanks for your info !

 

[Steveo113]

There is normally a parameter to add in Nvflash command line to override IDs mismatch.

Try
./nvflash_linux --protectoff
before
./nvflash_linux -6 Quadro_Beta1.2/K1100.rom

Tried that didn’t work.

 

[KennyW]

Bonjour,

Thanks for the info, that's when we realize that there can be so many types of failures, that it's difficult to make a diagnosis, I would look at all the wiring, already I have a suspect SATA power cable, that's to say...

View attachment 1703545

Edit: Big tiredness it's a data cable, not a power cable...

That is due to the aging of the rubber plastics, breaking and exposing the ground wiring mesh. That should still work ok. I observe the same for the SATA cable for my internal SSD. I just sealed it with AA gel.

 

[KennyW]

Ciao,

so to briefly recap previous episodes, and explain last steps I tried:

1. after installing an AMD WX4150, my 2010 21.5" iMac looked dead (no response at all to power-on button)
2. I de-assembled the graphics card again and used insulating tape all over it, just to exclude short circuits with the heatsink (see following pictures) as suggested:
   • front: View attachment 1703521​
   • back: View attachment 1703522​
3. as I mentioned before, I also put a 1mm copper plate on top of the GPU, with thermal paste on both sides (btw I also put thermal paste on the 4 RAM chips, is this correct?)
4. result: no change (iMac still dead)
5. I plugged off HDD and ODD, and now the system reacts to power-on button (one single chime, then after ~25 seconds fans start running at full speed) - nice that I didn't burn the whole house down after all!
6. so I plugged in the Linux USB (I tried both a USB stick and an SD card actually) + external display (via miniDS port), but the external display stays dark ("no signal")
7. I also looked at my router connections list, but Linux does not show up (tried the same with my working 2019 iMac, and it shows up nicely in the router connections list, and I'm able to ssh into it as well from a third computer)

Thanks @KennyW, I guess the last step would be to try the CH341A programmer clip. Not sure I want to go much further in this adventure, this has taken me too much time already. And I'm skeptical on the possibility that things would change after flashing.

Currently, my plan is just to place the original graphics card in place as soon as I find the time. Though I may stil change my mind, of course, if anything else emerges from your feedbacks!



Thanks a lot @internetzel, I think that there can be no short circuit whatsoever now. So it must be something else. But it was a good shot to try -- and indeed I tried it. Too bad it didn't work.



Mmh @Nguyen Duc Hieu that's not my understanding. I prepared Windows with auto-login and TeamViewer after reading post #1, so I guess that the system is able to boot even with a non-flashed card onboard. Also, that's the working hypothesis underlying the Linux flash USB stick, isn't it? If I got this wrong, please correct me, as I may be completely lost without knowing it.

Thanks a lot to everybody. Any further hint / comment / suggestion is of course welcome.

Ciao

Sergio

From the circumstantial evidence, either the GPU is dead or it doesn't POST in your iMac. I have also got a Dell WX4150 that refuses to POST in my iMac 2010 despite I can flash it with various vBIOS in hope of getting it to work with a ch341a programme. But it made no difference. There are certain combination of cards and iMacs that don't POST from our experience, mostly the new AMD GPUs. Unfortunately, no one can find the cause and solution yet. May your card RIP ... or resell it for PC users if working in HP notebook.

 

[vastunghia]

From the circumstantial evidence, either the GPU is dead or it doesn't POST in your iMac. I have also got a Dell WX4150 that refuses to POST in my iMac 2010 despite I can flash it with various vBIOS in hope of getting it to work with a ch341a programme. But it made no difference. There are certain combination of cards and iMacs that don't POST from our experience, mostly the new AMD GPUs. Unfortunately, no one can find the cause and solution yet. May your card RIP ... or resell it for PC users if working in HP notebook.

Yup, my guess is that it is refusing to POST. I would be surprised if it were dead, as it was sold as brand new and in fact it looked perfectly immaculate to me. But who cares, it makes no difference to me whether it is dead or it is not POSTing at the end of the day.

I guess the best next step I can take is reinstalling the original card. Then,

• if the Mac recovers, the conclusion is that my WX4150 is not compatible (I think I can exclude any issue related to short circuit with the heat sink). Too bad I already relocated the ODD sensor to the GPU heat sink...
• if the iMac remains dead, then it means that I damaged something somewhere.

Fingers crossed.

Thank you (and all those who took the time to reply).

Sergio

 

[KennyW]

Too bad I already relocated the ODD sensor to the GPU heat sink...

Why is it a bad thing ?

You can still re-use the heatsink for your old GPU ...

Except that it registers higher temp now with ramping up of the ODD fan that actually cools your GPU more.

 

[vastunghia]

Why is it a bad thing ?

You can still re-use the heatsink for your old GPU ...

Except that it registers higher temp now with tamping up of the ODD fans that actually cool your GPU more.

That’s exactly the side effect I had in mind. But maybe I can control ODD fans via software. Who uses ODD these days?

Sergio

 

[Steveo113]

Any help with my issue would be greatly appreciated. Unsure why, it's being read as a "NVM K1 USM". Also weird that It wont let me flash on the override option.

 

[Chris2020]

Any help with my issue would be greatly appreciated. Unsure why, it's being read as a "NVM K1 USM". Also weird that It wont let me flash on the override option.

My k1100m has the same refusal to update, I am finally getting around to trying the ch341a programmer on it. Will let you know how it goes. You can search on my posts to see where I had left off earlier this year.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Any help with my issue would be greatly appreciated. Unsure why, it's being read as a "NVM K1 USM". Also weird that It wont let me flash on the override option.

Since you cannot force the Nvidia flash software to write another BIOS onto the card get a CH341A clip programmer and flash the card this way. I do this all the time, especially because some Kepler card come without any BIOS loaded.

 

[ducks007]

Hello, I’m a newbie here but perhaps someone could help me?
I’ve buy recently a 27” 2011 imac with a k610m flash card inside. it don’t work very well with blue artefacts issue. After some test I’ve find that the gpu was really the problem and I’ve buy a k4100m to replace it (I’ve not ever received it)
this afternoon I’ve observed very closely the faulty k610m and I’ve discovered a smd capacitor missing (crack away) on the back of the pcb. I could replace it and perhaps fixed this board but I’ve not the value of this capacitor : is here someone could help me please ? Or it’s impossible to find the original value?
thanks in advance

 

[MBear2k]

Maybe you installed by mistake Legacy Video Patch using Catalina Patcher and for h264 hardware acceleration there is a process to follow to active it. All is described in the first Post.

Thanks - will check those again. I did go back in to the Catalina Patcher post install utilities, unchecked the Legacy Video patch and re-applied. At initial Patcher installation, I did not see a way to select patches - and per videos and write-ups I've seen, the reference is that the patches applied on initial installation are gathered by the tool as appropriate for the system.

 

[Steveo113]

My k1100m has the same refusal to update, I am finally getting around to trying the ch341a programmer on it. Will let you know how it goes. You can search on my posts to see where I had left off earlier this year.

I have a test clip and raspberry pi that I could flash the chip with, is there a tutorial for that?

 

[dstd123]

To my knowledge you can mix and match all the Late 2009 until Mid 2011 AMD Radeon 4xxx, 5xxx and 6xxx cards unless the fit into your system (MXM A or 21.5“ and both MXM-A and B for 27“ systems).
If you are still not sure consult other sources like ifixit.com and other threads here...

Yes i have used all this (AMD Radeon 4xxx, 5xxx and 6xxx) cards on my imac 2011

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thanks - will check those again. I did go back in to the Catalina Patcher post install utilities, unchecked the Legacy Video patch and re-applied. At initial Patcher installation, I did not see a way to select patches - and per videos and write-ups I've seen, the reference is that the patches applied on initial installation are gathered by the tool as appropriate for the system.

Possibly you should have checked the first post before installation, it is mentioned there in big red letters in the Catalina and Mojave section.

 

[EmmaBla]

Spoiler: A Short Plan of the Complete Hardware Upgrade Process

Why do I find the plan at the very end of this post? Because the steps listed are described in more detail in the former sections. This plan is not complete and because we have five different iMac systems with different architectures, three different MacOS versions, nearly 20 graphics cards in mainly 5 flavours, we cannot make a simple single plan:

1. choose a GPU, get the card (we do not comment on sellers)
2. optional: get an SD card / USB this drive and prepare it with the Catalina Loader in advance if needed by the GPU
3. upgrade your iMac boot rom firmware to the latest version (mandatory) by installing High Sierra on an internal disk including all recent Apple upgrades!
4. using RomTool (password rom) dump your iMac firmware and store it externally (highly recommended)
5. optional: get a CH341A clip programmer and install flashrom using brew on another Mac
6. optional: apply the EG mod to your iMac firmware and restore the modified image using a CH341A clip
7. optional: get an SD card / USB this drive and prepare it with the Linux flash utility, grab the most recent BIOS of your card of choice and copy it directly to the folder named flash on that drive
8. get the most recent BIOS version following the links in the table above, flash the card using a clip programmer in advance or install the card and use the flash software tools (mandatory)
9. relocate the ODD temperature sensor and install the card
10. check the basic functionality with the latest supported OS which is High Sierra (highly recommended)
11. install Macs Fan Control to and control the ODD fan according to the GPU heat sink temp sensor (mandatory)
12. apply basic patches like the AGC if you experience a black screen (see above)
13. optional: use the Catalina Loader (if needed by the card)
14. make load test (UNIGINE valley and Geekbench5 metal) and submit results (see above)
15. get used to the tools and patches, especially with OpenCore and Macs Fan Control
16. move on to Mojave or Catalina using the @dosdude1 patcher (details see above)
17. optional: apply sleep patches if using the 2011 iMac (Mojave and Catalina, only. see above)
18. optional: install iGPU framework if using the 2011 iMac (Mojave and Catalina, only. see above)

Whenever you have problems come back to this post and read the guides. There have been hundreds of successful installations during the last year. If you experience hardware problems you have to solve these on your own.

First of all, thank you for figuring all this out and making many people's lives better and more thrilling.

I am in this process with an iMac 12.1 with i7 2.8 kHz processor and a NVIDIA Quadro k2100m.

While I was working through the steps I stumbled across the following ambiguity.
In "a short plan of the complete upgrade process" it says to first use the AGC-kexts and the Catalina loader, and then upgrade to a newer OS. However, both require you to select specific files for the OS in question.
Also, in Ausdersportler's post "New Catalina Loader based on OpenCore 0.6.4 / 0.6.5pre" there is a terminal command to decrypt the Catalina Loader into a format that is only readable in Catalina and newer which indicates that the Catalina Loader will only be used after the OS upgrade.

If you find the time to make this clear in the first post, I'm sure many newbies, myself included, will be even more grateful.

Also, can anyone tell my what i could possibly did wrong when by using the catalina Loader (in OS Catalina) my second display is not working while he did without Catalina Loader?

 

[MBear2k]

Possibly you should have checked the first post before installation, it is mentioned there in big red letters in the Catalina and Mojave section.

I did indeed. The vbios provided on page 1 stated support for the later BRF memory may not work. So I used a rom from Nikey22 that specifically supports the card I have.

"H5GQ2H24BFR - Hynix 2nd Generation die - VDD 1.5V, use K3100M_BFR.rom"

I did re-find a thread from page 1: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread....1596614/page-162?post=28109056#post-28109056

Thanks for the kick to re-read! Will try this next.

 

[davelau777]

The odd successful upgrade experience: I bought my donor system back in May for $100 b/c dead spinning HD. Replaced with OWC sensor and SSD, worked fine until SSD crapped out 2 weeks later. Fine. OWC's RMA process leaves something to be desired, but whatever.

In the meantime, shopping for Xeons to upgrade with, I found a i7-2600 ($70), 3-pipe GPU cooler($50) and new in box K3100m on fleabay for $85 "New REAL-DEAL Dell Precision M6700 M6800 nVIDIA Quadro K3100m 4gb XJPPG" I figured, "why not, it's just a side project machine?"

Replaced CPU and GPU in one fell swoop (silver HS compound, no less) and booted to black screen. Tried to use Xanderon's boot USB, but it wouldn't see the rom to run the flash. Double-checked connections and rebooted, and to my surprise booted normally! No brightness control, but sleep and wake work fine. Unigine has abysmal reports, but is also showing 256MB for memory (Apple System Report shows 4095 MB). I'm almost tempted to just leave it, as it is working fine as it is (as my VMWare server with a very large screen). At least the fleabay seller is USA based, and AFAIK, the GPU was brand spanking new.

The odd thing here is that I never completed Xanderon's flash nor DOSdude's patcher. Running HS with ROM 87.0.0.0.0

 

[nikey22]

iMac A1311 & A1312 Video Card Heatsinks​

• I've put together a visual summary of the various types of heatsinks that we commonly see and a summary of the machines that they are normally found in. This should help guide efforts to match the upgraded video cards to your specific needs.

A1311 (EMC 2389, 2428, 2496)

Apple iMac 21.5-inch MXM-A:

• Apple iMac 21.5-inch machines using MXM-A, 2 pipe fin-less heatsink above (all A1311 models):

• The 21.5" iMacs only use 1 kind of 2-pipe heat sink that is not interchangeable with others. There are physical differences that prevent cross-platform use.
• The "Core 2 Duo" 21.5" machines use an integrated video card - GeForce 9400M and I didn't list them here.

A1312 (EMC 2309, 2374, 2390, 2429)

Apple iMac 27-inch MXM-A:

• The above MXM-A heat sink is 2-pipe, with a short head and has 4 rows of fins. It is different than the 21.5" 2-pipe heat sink physically and slightly larger. I've added the video cards that Apple used for this type of heatsink in the image. The following are Apple iMac 27-inch machines using this type of heatsink:

Apple iMac 27-inch MXM-B:

Apple iMac 27-inch MXM-B (3pipe):

• Apple made 2 types of MXM-B heatsinks. The most noticeable difference is the presence of a 3rd heatpipe. Notice also the larger gold-contact area of the 3pipe version. The Radeon HD 6xxx series required the use of the 3-pipe heat sink.
• The following are Apple iMac 27-inch machines using MXM-B, 2/3 pipe heatsinks: