Thank you!! I had to make root writable, now it works! I'm so happy! Maybe a hint about making root writable in Catalina should be included in the original post for the K3100 /K4100 ?
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iM 4,1-14,4 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade
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With Ausdauersportlers hint I could make it work. In addition to disabling SIP, you also have to make root writable. Type in terminal
sudo mount -uw /After that kext utility will be able to make the change.
Yeah, i will definitely try that later... hopefull it will work the same way in big sur. Thanks!!!
Edit: It seems that in Big Sur, mounting the root as writable is different than Catalina and the procedure causes problems such as boot loops and FileVault cant be re-enabled afterwards as discussed here. Made me hesitate now.
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Filevault is known to cause more trouble than its worth in Catalina or Big Sur in UNSUPPORTED Macs.
If you insist, better stay as present.
Read the first post, please. It has clearly described such issue and the solution for all nVidia GPUs.
Either you sleep and rewake your iMac, or use some app devised by user here to perform the same during startup automatically.
Just want to say huge thanks to you guys.
I got this iMac 2011 from verge collection and started this upgrade. Burned PSU during GPU replacement. Then bought an iMac 2010 with faulty GPU and then burned logic board (component: L9000, next to display data connector) during GPU flashing. Used iMac 2010 PSU as a donor and picked up iMac 2011 again and it worked this time. Such a achievement after over 20ish times of taking apart and assembly.
Lesson Learned:
GPU K3100M (H5GC2H24BFR) bought from internet and came without X bracket; The bracket from original GPU HD 6970M 1GB doesn't fit; used the one from HD 5750 1GB which is perfect.
Next Step:
SATA devices lost after upgrade, including HDD and ODD. These are working before upgrade. Suspect new GPU overdrew power from PSU or short circuits in logic board. Using external drive via USB 2.0 to boot for now. High appreciate if anyone can share any ideas or experience on this issue.
Enjoy your journey.
I got this iMac 2011 from verge collection and started this upgrade. Burned PSU during GPU replacement. Then bought an iMac 2010 with faulty GPU and then burned logic board (component: L9000, next to display data connector) during GPU flashing. Used iMac 2010 PSU as a donor and picked up iMac 2011 again and it worked this time. Such a achievement after over 20ish times of taking apart and assembly.
Lesson Learned:
GPU K3100M (H5GC2H24BFR) bought from internet and came without X bracket; The bracket from original GPU HD 6970M 1GB doesn't fit; used the one from HD 5750 1GB which is perfect.
Next Step:
SATA devices lost after upgrade, including HDD and ODD. These are working before upgrade. Suspect new GPU overdrew power from PSU or short circuits in logic board. Using external drive via USB 2.0 to boot for now. High appreciate if anyone can share any ideas or experience on this issue.
Enjoy your journey.
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Congratulation to your successful transplant of the iMac 2010 PSU to your iMac 2011.Just want to say huge thanks to you guys.
I got this iMac 2011 from verge collection and started this upgrade. Burned PSU during GPU replacement. Then bought an iMac 2010 with faulty GPU and then burned logic board (component: L9000, next to display data connector) during GPU flashing. Used iMac 2010 PSU as a donor and picked up iMac 2011 again and it worked this time. Such a achievement after over 20ish times of taking apart and assembly.
Lesson Learned:
GPU K3100M (H5GC2H24BFR) bought from internet and came without X bracket; The bracket from original GPU HD 6970M 1GB doesn't fit; used the one from HD 5750 1GB which is perfect.
Next Step:
SATA devices lost after upgrade, including HDD and ODD. These are working before upgrade. Suspect new GPU overdrew power from PSU or short circuits in logic board. Using external drive via USB 2.0 to boot for now. High appreciate if anyone can share any ideas or experience on this issue.
Enjoy your journey.
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That should be able to supply enough power for K3100, provided it has the new Mac vBIOS to limit its power consumption. The SATA might be zapped by the burned PSU if both HDD and ODD not working.
Read the first post or the BIOS posts. Search for color depth problem, happens only with NVIDIA ++ cards.
Greetings, this is the hottest topic all the time. Read the first post on the first page and decide yourself - you will need an MXM card and the counterpart would be the WX4150 - which causes problems in all colours and all machines and sometimes it just works. Please, check the docs!
You will be dumping money into a card for a card that will likely 'crash' your SMC as soon as you go to benchmark it, wouldn't risk it again.
I won't advise a RX560 (WX4150/WX4170) since you will have difficulty to find a working one. The RX460 (WX4130) would have a better chance for the 27" iMac 2010 from my own limited experience. Otherwise, you may need to step up to RX480 if with money to spend. Forget the most high end AMD as you should save to buy the M1 MacMini then.
I'm playing around with a WX4150 for about a week now. If you just wanna do it for fun and testing like I do, than this is the right card for you. But don't expect a fully working system as outcome!!! If you need your iMac and you just want another gpu, this is not the right gpu for you!
This card is really weird. My iMac 2010 21.5 is now running Catalina from an intern original apple HDD pulled from an old MacBook Pro. The moment I'm using an internal SSD the system won't power on at all. If you don't wanna face this and other weird stuff, don't buy this card.
The AMD is a weird family indeed.I'm playing around with a WX4150 for about a week now. If you just wanna do it for fun and testing like I do, than this is the right card for you. But don't expect a fully working system as outcome!!! If you need your iMac and you just want another gpu, this is not the right gpu for you!
This card is really weird. My iMac 2010 21.5 is now running Catalina from an intern original apple HDD pulled from an old MacBook Pro. The moment I'm using an internal SSD the system won't power on at all. If you don't wanna face this and other weird stuff, don't buy this card.
WX4150 is a temperamental lady that can't be easily handled by 21.5" Mac boy, but 27" Mac gentleman.
She is not friendly across the ages from 2009 to 2011, not to mention her grand-ma Radeon HD 6xxx who gives a black face (dark screen) to everyone despite you tend to her by cooking (microwave).
Avoid her fraternal twin WX4170 who is often without a heart (BIOS chip).
Her younger sister WX4130 is more amiable 😚
And her elder sister RX480 would go with only youngsters (2009 & 2010) but not elder (2011).
Their eldest sister WX7100 is unreachable, due to her high pride (>$300). 🤣
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Does anyone in this forum (or elsewhere) offer this upgrade as a service?
I have two old 21.5-inch 2011 iMacs I'd like to have upgraded, but even though I've replaced hard drives with SSDs and even built a fusion drive for one of them, this is a bit much for me.
I just want to pay someone else to do it. Even if that means shipping these iMacs half-way across the country. (I could also pull the logic board and just ship that, if the upgrade can be tested before coming back to me.)
I have two old 21.5-inch 2011 iMacs I'd like to have upgraded, but even though I've replaced hard drives with SSDs and even built a fusion drive for one of them, this is a bit much for me.
I just want to pay someone else to do it. Even if that means shipping these iMacs half-way across the country. (I could also pull the logic board and just ship that, if the upgrade can be tested before coming back to me.)
It's not financially efficient to have someone else to do the job for you. It's not about the labour cost, but the risk with the fragile machine vs poor quality of transportation.
If your GPU is still working, better use the machine as it is, target display mode if possible.
If not, trash it and buy a newer model.
Or keep it until you have mustered enough courage and knowledge to play with it, and happen to come a cross a cheap GPU torn out from a dead laptop.
The WX4150 4GB HP card is the most tempting, only because it can be bought cheaply from a single player on ebay, even with the risk that it will not be compatible with your iMac.
Another day, another attempt!This card didn't age well…
Today I was just browsing the interweb and chatting on IM, suddenly the system froze, then my iMac can't get past the boot screen anymore. Either the refurbished card is kaput, or I foolishly toasted it with the 2-heat-pipe, MXM-A heatsink, before changing to the proper heat sink.
To any newcomers, you're reminded to:
1. Read and reread post #1. Whatever it says, heed it.
2. Be prepared to open your iMac more than a few times. Have your Torx keys ready.
After the untimely demise of this refurbished GTX 860M (it shows colour artefacts and will freeze during boot screen), I got myself an entirely new, unused Quadro K3100M (at least that's what the seller says anyway)
HP Card, H5GC2H24BFR, VBIOS: 80.04.E8.00.21
Since I'm coming from HD5670, the X-bracket with the smaller square fits perfectly. And it's also robust, capable of taking some torque to make sure good contact is achieved between the GPU die and the heatsink. Certainly more robust than the one that came with GTX860M (with VRAM plate)
Tried to install some cooling copper fins to the backside VRAM, but couldn't. The gap to the metal plate is too tiny.
And so all 8 VRAMs on the backside had to be installed bare. (The one shown here is not attached)
Installed nikey22's ROM using Linux over SSH. Smooth sailing.
Everything is working, so thanks to @nikey22 again for the 2nd ROM I flashed just now. The colour depth is solved using @passatgt 's little command at login.
The only question now is I get low score from Unigine Valley…
Other people in the spreadsheet reported scores around 1500-1700 for K3100M, but I only got 1264, which is even lower than the now-dead 860M (score 1560)
Any suggestions on where to inspect? Or is this within expectation?
iMac 2010, 27", i7-870, K3100M (BFR ROM), macOS 10.14.6
Also tried Unigine Valley for Windows 10. Approx. same score.
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Btw turns out that you only need to run this command once and it will stick to the correct color depth even after restart. You can disable the change by switching the resolution to something else and back to the original one.
@exFictitiouZ
I've adjusted the -BFR rom timings slightly and the boosting should be better now, also a few other tweaks to bios version. Please redownload and reflash. Thanks!
A reminder for anyone that purchases any new card, please take front/back pictures of the card including the vrams and backup the vbios rom. It makes troubleshooting much easier to have this information.
I've adjusted the -BFR rom timings slightly and the boosting should be better now, also a few other tweaks to bios version. Please redownload and reflash. Thanks!
A reminder for anyone that purchases any new card, please take front/back pictures of the card including the vrams and backup the vbios rom. It makes troubleshooting much easier to have this information.
WX7100 I got recently - Worked out the box with Windows set as main boot drive (may need to plug an external display in to wake up the screen) - Flashed it with the Page1 Bios under Windows.
2011 27' iMac - High Sierra/Windows
Thermal Grizzly Kryonaught thermal paste and K5 Pro paste on the chips.
Temps: 74'c under Battlefield 5 gaming load.
Is there a way to undervolt these GPU's further - all overclocking/undervolting etc is locked out it seems under Windows where as my 780M wasn't.
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Yup - Seems the Pro series GPU's (WX x100's) aren't able to edit their clocks/volts at a driver level within the driver or Afterburner (when you click apply it just reverts back) but my 780M I was able to control everything.
Not sure how to edit the values in the bios of the card.