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

[Danwilderspin]

Hi all, thanks for this excellent thread.

I had a dead gpu in an 2011 27 iMac. I went for a k610m and flashed the bios with the custom bios on here.

All seemed to have been working fine for the last week so I was happy but then this morning I opened up maceumours website and pictures were all jumbled up and it had random black spots on it also no text was displayed. it was weird it was just in safari.

after a few minute of flicking between pages it sorted itself out but...

I then got a single pixel wide blue vertical line down the centre of the screen, any ideas? it all seem s to be working fin now but I have this dirty line annoying me?

 

[KennyW]

Hi all, thanks for this excellent thread.

I had a dead gpu in an 2011 27 iMac. I went for a k610m and flashed the bios with the custom bios on here.

All seemed to have been working fine for the last week so I was happy but then this morning I opened up maceumours website and pictures were all jumbled up and it had random black spots on it also no text was displayed. it was weird it was just in safari.

after a few minute of flicking between pages it sorted itself out but...

I then got a single pixel wide blue vertical line down the centre of the screen, any ideas? it all seem s to be working fin now but I have this dirty line annoying me?

The K610m was launched by nVidia in 7/2013. The risk of buying these old worn out used GPUs has been warned in the first post. Most likely yours is at the end of his life, especially if the heatsink isn't well coupled. Even if you have done a great job of that, it might just be now the high time to say good-bye to it by chance ....

 

[Danwilderspin]

The K610m was launched by nVidia in 7/2013. The risk of buying these old worn out used GPUs has been warned in the first post. Most likely yours is at the end of his life, especially if the heatsink isn't well coupled. Even if you have done a great job of that, it might just be now the high time to say good-bye to it by chance ....

Thanks Kenny

I bought it form Aliexpress so not sure the story. I got a good coupling o the main core on the heating but that was the only thing such is this corrupt the two chips I just bridged with compound as there is not much information on this...?

 

[Carriba]

again: have you searched for black screen issue on the first post?

here is what i read:
under the Table of Working NVIDIA Graphics Cards, penultimate paragraph, black screen (#10,413). moved to post package installer (10,867). SIP disabled, install iMac NVIDIA black screen patch, chose BacklightFixup patch, all is well, reboot, lcd imac all time black but second lcd through hdmi work even with apple boot screen. again format my ssd, install High Sierra, updating 10.13.6, SIP disabled, install iMac NVIDIA black screen patch, chose vit9696 WhateverGreen and Lilu, all is well, reboot, lcd imac all time black and light 3 diode on motherboard ! (I have: imac i7 27 2011 High Sierra 10.13.6 780m)
again format my ssd, install Catalina through dosdude1's Catalina patcher (followed tutorial video), all is well, after loading Catalina there were two automatic updates, reboot, SIP disabled, install iMac NVIDIA black screen patch, chose vit9696 WhateverGreen and Lilu, all is well, reboot, no change - lcd imac black all time and light 3 diode on motherboard only Hdmi (((
I have 2 imac but they are identical, difference i5/i7. tried running 780m on any of them. no success. I have already ordered another gpu 780m, but I want to understand why doesn't this one work?

 

[Danwilderspin]

The K610m was launched by nVidia in 7/2013. The risk of buying these old worn out used GPUs has been warned in the first post. Most likely yours is at the end of his life, especially if the heatsink isn't well coupled. Even if you have done a great job of that, it might just be now the high time to say good-bye to it by chance ....

Also is there any chance it could be the display at fault? Here is a picture of it

 

[herrdude]

Also is there any chance it could be the display at fault? Here is a picture of itView attachment 1721447

Most likely it's the LCD. I have an iMac with this problem (the line is green). I tried different graphic cards and the line is still there. This leads me to believe that the LCD is the problem.

 

[lfom]

@Danwilderspin If the line is fixed (always same position), visible all the time (including boot menu) but not on the external display, probably you have a faulty display panel (either t-con board or the connections between the board and the top of the LCD itself).

 

[Carriba]

Maybe a problem Black screen with my gpu 780m , because absent two capacitors at the top of the chip.
But this is unlikely. Called them, call to earth (to ground).
Can someone tell me please, what resistance capacitors (which are missing) ???

 

[Danwilderspin]

@Danwilderspin If the line is fixed (always same position), visible all the time (including boot menu) but not on the external display, probably you have a faulty display panel (either t-con or the connections at between it and the top of the LCD itself).

Thanks I had the display out earlier this week but thought I was careful it was working fine when it went back in... can any of those issues be repaired? it is fixed and not on and external screen when I mirror...

 

[joevt]

Also is there any chance it could be the display at fault? Here is a picture of it

The picture seems to show a cyan line. A cyan line means the blue and green are working but the red is broken at that position. If the background was red, then you would see a black line.
My Apple 30" Cinema Display has a yellow line which means red and green are working and blue is broken.
A magenta line means blue and red are working and green is broken.

 

[lfom]

Thanks I had the display out earlier this week but thought I was careful it was working fine when it went back in... can any of those issues be repaired? it is fixed and not on and external screen when I mirror...

Maybe it is a COF failure (corrosion or bad solder), if not the LCD itself was damaged (no fix AFAIK). It is not related to this thread, so you can search online "fix lcd vertical line". The main problem is that disassembling iMac's LCD panel is a huge PITA, 100x worse and more dangerous than removing the GPU. You can find some videos online to help, but it will never be like new again, and the chances to break something is big, be prepared to do it slowly and it will take hours.

 

[Danwilderspin]

The picture seems to show a cyan line. A cyan line means the blue and green are working but the red is broken at that position. If the background was red, then you would see a black line.
My Apple 30" Cinema Display has a yellow line which means red and green are working and blue is broken.
A magenta line means blue and red are working and green is broken.

Yes in red it is showing black... so you'd think that is the display aside from below have you an idea how to fix

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Maybe a problem Black screen with my gpu 780m , because absent two capacitors at the top of the chip.
But this is unlikely. Called them, call to earth (to ground).
Can someone tell me please, what resistance capacitors (which are missing) ???

This ist really great! After posting the whole day at the very end you come around with an incomplete GPU - the best chance to find an replacement is to rip the caps apart from another (broken) GPU.

To completely rule out the AGC problem (black screen) try at least to install the patched AGC provided by @highvoltage12v. This is the only way. Honestly I do not trust in your abilities to install software correctly. Mark the patched file with a color label in advance and check after installation, kernel rebuild and reboot that it is really installed in SLE and so activated.

Have you ever thought about describing what you have done in advance and what you have discovered on you GPU in advance. We are sitting thousands of miles away tapping in the dark with half of the information you have. I will stop answering such posts.

 

[Carriba]

This ist really great! After posting the whole day at the very end you come around with an incomplete GPU - the best chance to find an replacement is to rip the caps apart from another (broken) GPU.

To completely rule out the AGC problem (black screen) try at least to install the patched AGC provided by @highvoltage12v. This is the only way. Honestly I do not trust in your abilities to install software correctly. Mark the patched file with a color label in advance and check after installation, kernel rebuild and reboot that it is really installed in SLE and so activated.

Have you ever thought about describing what you have done in advance and what you have discovered on you GPU in advance. We are sitting thousands of miles away tapping in the dark with half of the information you have. I will stop answering such posts.

This is my 3-4 post. Published photo of the chip and absent two capacitors at the top of the chip, but no one answered me (#12,192)
Post #5,887 @highvoltage12v haven't tried.
Ausdauersportler tell me please
before replacing AppleGraphicsControl.kext in terminal to write:
sudo mount -uw /
killall Finder
this is one team or two? write in one line or two? or take turns :
sudo mount -uw / (enter) killall Finder (enter) ?
thanks!

 

[herrdude]

This is my 3-4 post. Published photo of the chip and absent two capacitors at the top of the chip, but no one answered me (#12,192)
Post #5,887 @highvoltage12v haven't tried.
Ausdauersportler tell me please
before replacing AppleGraphicsControl.kext in terminal to write:
sudo mount -uw /
killall Finder
this is one team or two? write in one line or two? or take turns :
sudo mount -uw / (enter) killall Finder (enter) ?
thanks!

Did you try? I am fairly certain you won't die.

 

[cheaptech]

Here are my results. I am puzzled by the amount memory Engine reports on my card. 256mb? I searched here and dint find any comments but Google show some people claiming that its a known problem with Unigine especially on Nvida cards. Does anyone know if that's true? Or is that result typical for my setup?

View attachment 952881


View attachment 952888

UPDATE: GPU model shows 2GB

Thats a flashed K1100M in a 27" 2011 with no OC

 

[osch]

Hello,

after following this thread for a long time and reading nearly 80% of the posts (wow >500 pages) it was time to get my iMac 2009 I7 upgraded. Was able to source a K2100M for a decent price, was lucky the new ROM2 was just released as my card has the Elpida RAM chips, performed the flash upgrade and followed the installation steps. Few hours later the IMac was working as it should. After a few weeks later I can say it was worth the effort as the K2100M produces less heat compared to the old AMD one. Kudos for all the work!

Unfortunately there is one small issue getting my external display working over the DisplayPort on full resolution. Only working solution is to use a DP -> DVI adapter which results in lower resolution but does it's job for now. Monitor also needs to be connected and on during boot otherwise no picture (minor issue).

The issue persists regardless of booted MacOS (Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina) with or without OC, resetting PRAM and SMC. In some cases I can see that the iMac tries to initialise the screen (flashing) during boot but it doesn't result into a full picture.

There have been a few posts around this topic but it seems no one run into this issue or it is my combination of iMac / Display. I know it was working before the upgrade and connecting it to a different Mac works to. As the issue persists across all MacOS it seems like the card either doesn't support it or the ROM / OC is missing something?

I would appreciate any valuable input around this issue. Happy to provide more details...

---

iMac 27" Late 2009, K2100M (Elpida RAM), i7 (I7-860), 32GB
Monitor Samsung S27D850

 

[joaom.ml]

Hi, can someone give me an answer on this? I can't find it anywhere... I've a Nvidia 765M taken from a Clevo labtop and i want to know if this will work if i flash the card to fit my 2011 27 iMac.

Thanks in advance

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Hi, can someone give me an answer on this? I can't find it anywhere... I've a Nvidia 765M taken from a Clevo labtop and i want to know if this will work if i flash the card to fit my 2011 27 iMac.

Thanks in advance

If you were lucky and did the swapping carefully enough, it will work out of box. No boot screen, though.

 

[john2000s]

where can i download OpenCore loader.dmg from ? does anyone know? the official links state they have a virus and only owner can download them

2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade

Catalina Loader and OpenCore Important: Upload of image is encrypted now just to please Google, password is NICK NEWS: Some of you have possibly seen that I stopped publishing new updates of preconfigured versions of OpenCore in the old way providing different config files for NVIDIA and AMD...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Kidfa]

If anyone wants - I have a spare GTX 780M, flashed already, that came out of my 27 2011 now lying around after upgrading to my WX7100.

I'll include a new tube of K5 Pro thermal compound for the chips.

PM/Message me and we can discuss price/shipping.

Hi terros,
Do you think this gpu will work out of the box with a 27 » mid 2011 (1312) running in sierra?
I say « out of the box because my old gpu is broken soI can’t flash it, ... and I‘m a newby so I even don’t know how to do it...

 

[Raod]

Hi terros,
Do you think this gpu will work out of the box with a 27 » mid 2011 (1312) running in sierra?
I say « out of the box because my old gpu is broken soI can’t flash it, ... and I‘m a newby so I even don’t know how to do it...

Yes, that's my config and it'll boot if you had a OS installed but you won't see anything before it loads to the desktop.

I'd used the USB linux method form the first post on Questions and Answers:Q3 via ssh without problems and after that you'll have boot screen...

 

[jwovends]

Please search back the thread, had this myself and another user some month ago. The combo 21.5 2011 and K2100M can cause such problems but there is a cure.

Thanks, I tried the .kext file, but no joy, same poor performance. I'm thinking I just need to return the K2100M and re-install the K1100M. Maybe the fix didn't work because I have a 2010 rather than a 2011 iMac.

 

[lfom]

Thanks, I tried the .kext file, but no joy, same poor performance. I'm thinking I just need to return the K2100M and re-install the K1100M. Maybe the fix didn't work because I have a 2010 rather than a 2011 iMac.

Before you return the card, you may want to check if you have some temperature sensor not working properly or maybe disconnected, you can run Diagnostics during boot for this. I just had a 2010 iMac with a very bad performance after replacing its GPU and it was due to power throttle. In this case, both CPU and GPU will perform badly due to power limitation.

 

[0kami]

If anyone wants - I have a spare GTX 780M, flashed already, that came out of my 27 2011 now lying around after upgrading to my WX7100.

I'll include a new tube of K5 Pro thermal compound for the chips.

PM/Message me and we can discuss price/shipping.

I'm too new to PM you, but I'm interested. Can you pls PM me?