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

[StephN999]

Good evening,

Disassembling and checking the whole cabling, I took the opportunity to tidy everything up, I changed the data sata cable, same problem, I'm waiting for the new power supply even if I don't believe in it too much.

Ausdauersportler advised me to restart the PRAM but I can't because it doesn't boot, does a modification of the rom allow me to restart the PRAM at any chance?

Happy new year's party.

PS: Instead of protecting the video card, I preferred to protect the Video Card Heatsinks, I have the impression that it will suffocate the graphic card. 😋

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Good evening,

Disassembling and checking the whole cabling, I took the opportunity to tidy everything up, I changed the data sata cable, same problem, I'm waiting for the new power supply even if I don't believe in it too much.

Ausdauersportler advised me to restart the PRAM but I can't because it doesn't boot, does a modification of the rom allow me to restart the PRAM at any chance?

Happy new year's party.

PS: Instead of protecting the video card, I preferred to protect the Video Card Heatsinks, I have the impression that it will suffocate the graphic card. 😋

The best thing is:

On @nikey22 post about the iMac heat sinks everybody can easily detect that even Apple did exactly this. Some parts of the sink is covered with tape to avoid shorts...mostly the MXM-A ones have it.

 

[StephN999]

Re,
I confirm but only one place concerning the iMac 2011 21,5". 😅

 

[Chris2020]

Reset your PRAM.

Tried with both iMac keyboard and a usb keyboard, no luck. Also tried booting from Linux CD, no luck. Checked diagnostic LEDs, just 1 and 2 lit with display disconnected. It gives the start up chime on and I even see it connected to my WiFi router after start up. Looking at the Apple trouble shooting guide before disassembly further. Don‘t think the backup battery was ever replaced so will do that when it’s apart in case that matters.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

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 View attachment 1703706View attachment 1703707

In case you live in Europe I can send you another dead card to loot - happy new year!

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

I'd like to provide an update about my WX4150 which I installed inside of a 2010 27" iMac. A few days ago, I mentioned that I thought my GPU was overheating. I had only been using thermal pads to cool the GPU, and it was idling around 65ºC. When I tried using it, the GPU would easily reach 90ºC under load. On top of this, my benchmark scores were about half of what I expected them to be. To fix this problem, I placed a 1mm copper shim coated in Arctic MX4 thermal paste between the GPU die and heatsink. I also covered the RAM chips in K5 Pro thermal paste so that they contacted the heatsink.

These modifications have drastically improved the thermals of my GPU. It now idles around 35ºC, and the heatsink temperature is about 1-3ºC different from the GPU die. I cannot make the GPU hotter than about 45ºC, no matter what I do with it. This is a stark contrast from before, where it would immediately spike to 90ºC as soon as I launched a benchmark.

After fixing the overheating problems, I was able to update my VBIOS from the GOP VBIOS to the "Dell RX 560 4GB" VBIOS linked on the first page without a problem. As a bonus, since I had previously flashed this GPU, I got to use the Xanderon Linux drive natively, without SSH.

I also moved my Optical drive sensor over to the GPU heatsink (mounted with some double sided tape for now), and it seems to be working correctly in that position. (I'm using Macs Fan Control anyway, so this wasn't strictly necessary.)

Here are the current benchmark scores I have been able to achieve with this new GPU (I have also uploaded the applicable scores to Google Forms on the first post):

Stock ATI 5750:

Unigine Valley: 841 Points @1080p Medium No AA

Geekbench 5: Compute OpenCL: Would not run, reported by Geekbench browser as 779

Geekbench 4: Compute OpenCL: 7,931


WX4150 Benchmarks with Copper Shim, K5 Pro, and Dell RX 560 4GB VBIOS:

Unigine Valley: 1648 Points @1080p Medium No AA

Geekbench 5: Compute OpenCL: 17,715

Geekbench 4: Compute OpenCL: 62,945

The new GPU is significantly faster than the stock 5750, more than doubling my Unigine Valley score! Strangely, I could not get Geekbench to report a Metal Compute score, only OpenCL scores. This GPU supports metal, and GeekBench runs, but it never opens a window with results when I run the Metal benchmark. 🤷‍♂️

Otherwise, everything seems to be working quite well. I have full functionality including brightness control, dual monitors, Target Display Mode, and an OpenCore boot screen. I have yet to tinker with upgrading beyond High Sierra or getting drivers to work in Boot Camp, but I will likely do both in the future.

Thanks to everyone who has provided advice and helped me with this project so far!

Thanks for the mention. I appreciate it!

 

[jayniep]

Unsure if I should ask here or the respective os threads ut considering this thread was the start for my foray into upgrading my iMac, I'll try here.

I'm new to apple in general but I've gotten pretty far into a nicely functioning machine here with only two main issues, the misreported 4gb vram bug for the K3000M and sleep issues, report says sleep on wake failure in EFI. I've been trying to tackle the sleep issue on both Big Sur 11.1 beta and Catalina 19H505 beta with no success on either. I've tried installing the missing sandy bridge kexts using all the available patchers on the Big Sur and Catalina threads and still sleep on wake failure. A clean reinstall of Catalina with patches doesn't work either.

Could it be due to my multiple partitions (HS, Cat, Big Sur on one ssd) or my K3000M? Other setups I've seen use other gpus and don't seem to have my issues. So close to a perfect-ish running system lol

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Unsure if I should ask here or the respective os threads ut considering this thread was the start for my foray into upgrading my iMac, I'll try here.

I'm new to apple in general but I've gotten pretty far into a nicely functioning machine here with only two main issues, the misreported 4gb vram bug for the K3000M and sleep issues, report says sleep on wake failure in EFI. I've been trying to tackle the sleep issue on both Big Sur 11.1 beta and Catalina 19H505 beta with no success on either. I've tried installing the missing sandy bridge kexts using all the available patchers on the Big Sur and Catalina threads and still sleep on wake failure. A clean reinstall of Catalina with patches doesn't work either.

Could it be due to my multiple partitions (HS, Cat, Big Sur on one ssd) or my K3000M? Other setups I've seen use other gpus and don't seem to have my issues. So close to a perfect-ish running system lol

If you have this "sleep on wake failure in EFI" even with High Sierra than the K3000M and the very special BIOS will be the root cause. We have had no such issues with any other card here so far on Sierra or High Sierra. Problems come up with Mojave and later due to the patching story.

At least using my the Big Sur micro patcher fork should give you the sleep functionality without any additional patches with every other listed NVIDIA or AMD card (as long as posting in the 2011).

Using Catalina or Mojave - sorry to write this - I am not sure of what the people are really doing while patching just to crash their systems at the very end so badly - even if they have a different GPU.

 

[Macarb]

Hi guy,

iam new here and like that forum.

Hope you can help me here:
ERROR: No NVIDIA display adapters found.
2 root@grml /lib/live/mount/medium/flash #


What exact is the problem here?
I changed my dead gpu to k2100m and use the usb method from xander.

Would be nice if we can find out what the problem is.

Thanks

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Reseat the card, reinstall on the sink and if it still not working with the Linux flash utility try flashing the card using a CH341A clip.

I never had such issues with a K2100M, possibly it is dead.

 

[Terros]

Is there a fix/method to install UEFI Win8/10 with Sound and GPU working on a 2011 iMac 12,2?

My 780M with the current bios just freezes Windows on Legacy(BIOS) installed. UEFI install of Windows and the onboard sound doesn't work and 780M goes blank after a driver install, been reading and trying many things around the web to get this work.

On the older bios Legacy boot worked but obvs no brightness control etc

Is there a work around I've missed to get this working?

 

[mdgm]

For UEFI Windows 10 to fix the sound you either need to use OpenCore with the appropriate DSDT patch for your system; or enable test signing mode and apply the appropriate DSDT patch for your system.

 

[vastunghia]

So here is my current condition:

• I have a working (and correctly flashed) WX4150 on my 21.5" 2010 iMac

[...]

So, for the record, please add one working WX4150 to the list of successful GPU upgrade!

Kudos to all of the people who made this possible!

My next steps:

1. Test extensively in HS
2. If all lights green, install Big Sur (or is it worth considering intermediate steps, like Catalina?) on new partition
3. Test Big Sur
4. If all lights green, switch permanently to Big Sur.

A few remarks / doubts / pending minor issues, in no particular order:

• For the posterity: unexpectedly, preparing the Catalina Loader bootable SD card gave me a couple of headaches, as both Disk Utility and balenaEtcher refused to do their job, with different errors. Should anybody else experience these problems, what saved my life was the following command: sudo /usr/sbin/asr -noverify restore --source Catalina\ Loader.dmg --target /Volumes/[your_SD_card] --erase. In particular, the -noverify flag is what did the trick. Also remember to initialize the SD card with GUID partition map, not MBR (this was preventing me to select the SD card as boot disk in System Preferences).
• During boot, Catalina Loader presents me with this:

Starting OpenCore.efi​

Using load options ''​

Error: Already started returned from OpenCore.efi​

​

* Hit any key to continue *​

​

Everything goes smooth after that, so no big deal. I was just wondering if anybody else experienced this. I looked around and found only user @r6mile reporting this, but apparently there was no follow-up.​

• Can SIP be re-enabled safely? Or does Catalina Loader + OC need this disabled all the time?
• I checked and I have MoBo diagnostic LEDs 1, 2 and 4 on -- but 3 (GPU) stays off. Is this normal?
• I still have to kickstart the card by connecting an external display when I reach High Sierra's login screen (using OC 0.5.9, as I think I understood that there are more downsides than benefits from using newer versions in HS). I think this is the expected behavior in HS, it's just that I'm not sure I got this right.
• H.264 acceleration seems ok (checked in MaxC Video Converter Pro, while VideoProc seems unable to report for some reason, and it ends up freezing my Mac), as well as sleep. Brightness control worked out-of-the-box, but this is no surprise.
• Here are my Unigine Valley benchmark results (iMac11,2 with 3.2 GHz i7), in terms of average FPS

Avg FPS	Radeon HD 5670 256MB	Radeon Pro WX4150 4GB	Gain
Basic preset	17.2	18.8	9%
Extreme preset	4.6	17.7	285%
Extreme HD preset	2.5	16.1	544%

and in terms of Unigine score:​

​

​

Unigine score	Radeon HD 5670 256MB	Radeon Pro WX4150 4GB	Gain
Basic preset	720	785	9%
Extreme preset	192	742	286%
Extreme HD preset	104	673	547%

Will run MetalBench as soon as I can (i.e. after I upgrade to Catalina / Big Sur).​

• Thermal values look pretty promising. Before setting up Macs Fan Control, so with fans blowing at full speed, I had idle temperatures (sampled using GPU_Monitor_AMD from Catalina Loader Tools) below 30° C and peak values below 40° C (after running 15 minutes of Unigine Valley with Extreme preset)! So now it is just a matter of fine tuning Macs Fan Control profiles.
• Regarding Macs Fan Control, I had a surprise as I see that it lists a "Radeon RX 460 GPU" temp sensor (reading the same temp reported by GPU_Monitor_AMD). I wasn't expecting this! It's good to have some positive surprise as well, from time to time . So currently I am setting ODD fan's trigger linked to this sensor, instead of the "GPU Heatsink". [Btw, I just noticed that the "GPU Heatsink" temp sensor is no longer listed in Macs Fan Control... compare the below two screenshots, taken a few hours apart. Weird.]

• Again on temperature sensors... am I right in saying that there is something wrong with
  • ODD: reads 0, something must have gone wrong when I relocated it to the GPU heatsink​
  • Ambient: reads 3-4° C... pretty cold in there uh? ​
  • Should my LCD temp sensor be listed here? I had an accident with the connector, basically it self-dematerialized when I first plugged it off a few months ago (for SDD upgrade), so I solved by carefully inserting the two terminal parts of the wires into the socket, and I thought it was working... but now I have some doubts!​
• Just as a side note, for the posterity: my Bluetooth was not working, but I was puzzled as my iSight camera worked. I found out that the connector was slightly misplaced (its left side was not put in place firmly enough) and BT cables are indeed on the left part of the connector. So just to reiterate, check your connections!

Ciao

Sergio

Ps: I'm attaching the original WX4150 vBIOS, just as a reference.

 

[TechInit]

Hey,

I'm new to the world of the 2011 iMac, and I'm thinking about buying a 27" one. I am aware of the graphics issues that the Radeon 6*** series has, and I was wondering if it would be possible to buy a GTX 460M. Not really much of a performance powerhouse, and I really don't need it to be, I would just like to know if it would work in these iMacs. I know the Fermi architecture isn't supported anymore, however, I believe it was when High Sierra came out, so would there be web drivers and such for this, or is it a total no-go?

Many thanks,
Leo

 

[FlorisVN]

Hey,

I'm new to the world of the 2011 iMac, and I'm thinking about buying a 27" one. I am aware of the graphics issues that the Radeon 6*** series has, and I was wondering if it would be possible to buy a GTX 460M. Not really much of a performance powerhouse, and I really don't need it to be, I would just like to know if it would work in these iMacs. I know the Fermi architecture isn't supported anymore, however, I believe it was when High Sierra came out, so would there be web drivers and such for this, or is it a total no-go?

Many thanks,
Leo

Why take the risk.. ?
GTX460M has so far not been confirmed working as far as I know.
I would advise you to take a look at page 1, and choose an compatible nvidia or AMD card from the list..

Of course you can try the GTX460M, and report back to us.
Perhaps you might need to change the vbios also, in order to get it working who knows..
Keep in mind fermi cards no longer work in modern macOS releases as far as I am aware of.

 

[Massimo Ghielmi]

Hi, with K1100M in 27" 2011 iMac second Thunderbolt don't work, this is a know issue?

Thanks

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi, with K1100M in 27" 2011 iMac second Thunderbolt don't work, this is a know issue?

Thanks

You mean you cannot connect more than one external display?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

1. The package you picked with High Sierra should solve your black screen issue... I will put it on GitHub the next week too and hope for some more tests by users.

2. Try to install only the latest full installer and then apply sleep packages and test or upgrade to the latest H505, apply all @dosdude patches and then after final reboot apply sleep patches. On the Catalina thread I post my recipe a few posts ago. Unfortunately I guess the H505 beta has bugs - BT connections get lost during sleep... ´

3. Big Sur 11.1 with my patcher fork works out of the box, no post post patching necessary - if the hardware is fine!

Since at the very end Big Sur let you iMac sleep again you simply messed up the installation with Catalina installed the needed patches. It cannot really be simpler than downloading a package and selecting some options. I am out of options here now.

 

[plasticpippo]

Is there a fix/method to install UEFI Win8/10 with Sound and GPU working on a 2011 iMac 12,2?

My 780M with the current bios just freezes Windows on Legacy(BIOS) installed. UEFI install of Windows and the onboard sound doesn't work and 780M goes blank after a driver install, been reading and trying many things around the web to get this work.

On the older bios Legacy boot worked but obvs no brightness control etc

Is there a work around I've missed to get this working?

it may be that it goes blank because windows installs the hd3000 driver too.
If you want to avoid the driver to be installed in UEFI check this post #11,698
it may also go blank because the driver takes a while to load. my k5100m sometimes takes 5/10 minutes to show the screen / loading the driver, sometimes just 30 seconds or less

Using the latest nvidia driver helps, but not a lot.

Also installing the latest drivers for everything using Snappy Driver helps too

To make audio work i used the Intel method explained in the link below, although it is not very stable AFAIK as i reverted to bios installation for windows

[GUIDE] DSDT override eGPU error 12 fix

Page shortcut: /a> | dsdt [GUIDE] DSDT override eGPU error 12 fix (Windows only) here ◄ Mac owners please work through this thread to solve...

egpu.io

 

[Massimo Ghielmi]

You mean you cannot connect more than one external display?

Exactly, I've read in this thread different question without answer.

 

[herrdude]

Exactly, I've read in this thread different question without answer.

Are you sure you read the first post? 🙃

Please check the section: Issues with unsupported MXM cards (seven problems). You will find your answer there.

Cheers!

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Exactly, I've read in this thread different question without answer.

The only known issue is that nearly all users ignore to read the first post and the announcements of this BIOS versions used with these cards.

 

[Massimo Ghielmi]

Are you sure you read the first post? 🙃

Please check the section: Issues with unsupported MXM cards (seven problems). You will find your answer there.

Cheers!

Thanks sorry... I'd read but I'd miss this information, the first post is very long and I'd search as thunderbolt and not minidisplayport...

@Ausdauersportler K1100M - BIOS 3782 (?)

 

[luckasa]

You are the best.
Thank you very much for your instructions: my iMac is a new one!. I've finally (after a lot of work with a lot of troubles) installed an AMD WX4130 GPU and an i7 2600 CPU. GOP BIOS firmware.
I've also upgraded to Mac OS Catalina (with Big Sur sleep doesn't works to me).
Here are the benchmarks (I'm not interested in a high grade GPU, I only need a GPU to upgrade Mac Os):

• Valley: 1304 - 31,2 FPS
• Geekbench 5 Metal: 16937
• MetalBench: 52 MRays

I'll upload to the forms associated.
The system is perfect for me, expect the fact that it doesn't have boot chooser without Catalina Loader.
Maybe a later upgrade firmware rom...

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thanks sorry... I'd read but I'd miss this information, the first post is very long and I'd search as thunderbolt and not minidisplayport...

@Ausdauersportler K1100M - BIOS 3782 (?)

Funny, on a regular basis users come up and want more information put into this post. My answer is always the same. Since we do not have in page links we cannot really organize it better than currently. Of course one could make a long, long complete page, even then we lack of a glossary. After being a guest for nearly one year here I believe the technology provided on this site is not sufficient to host a project of this size and complexity.

Other said this before - now I agree - we should move the content to github.com and leave the forum here.