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

[Ausdauersportler]

Thank you, I'm sad, is there a tutorial? i try to send her back to china

Solder tutorial? I guess there will be a lot of people in your neighbourhood able and willing to solder a simple chip with 8 pins on such a card. Chip will cost 2 Euro...and there is this really big internet search machine.

GPU change tutorial, no are not seriously asking me that?

 

[G3llings]

First, move on to a more recent version and second this patch should work with 27“ 2011 iMacs, only. The timeouts are needed because some vBIOS versions have the same timeouts and you would not see a picture before the 5-10s are gone.
The patch is needed for UEFI windows installations, only. BIOS installations do not suffer the sound driver problem.

I am out - Windows is not my thing.

Lol, thanks. I am on a 27" 2011 iMac, running windows in UEFI. Hopefully the issue is the GPU right now is looking for Nvidia, not the AMD 6770m. I chose 0.6.0 because it seemed to be the most stable for High Sierra based on the chart in the OpenCore post, unless the (AMD) ones are not strictly for AMD and are just showing they also support AMD.

 

[Onizuka18]

Solder tutorial? I guess there will be a lot of people in your neighbourhood able and willing to solder a simple chip with 8 pins on such a card. Chip will cost 2 Euro...and there is this really big internet search machine.

GPU change tutorial, no are not seriously asking me that?

laughing I have the necessary to solder the chip I wanted to know if there is a tutorial to flash the chip externally

 

[nikey22]

Hi, there is currently a semiconductor shortage!
I wanted to purchase about 200 pieces, but I was unable to do so. 6wks wait time.
Maybe they are available elsewhere, but they will be expensive.

@Onizuka18
When you purchased the K5100M it was supplied with a 1Mbit chip size (PMC Pm25LD010 2.7-3.6V 1024Kx1S)
This is not necessarily a mistake. If the vendor uses this card in a PC laptop without uefi, then the ROM will fit no problem. They don't know that you are intending to use this on a mac.

For our purposes, we always used a minimum of 2Mbit chip size (PMC Pm25LD020)
other alternatives are:
Winbond 25x20CLNIG
Macronix MX25L2006EM1I-12G

You can reference this post <EEPROM Replacement>
For external flashing <<CH341a>

 

[Onizuka18]

Hi, there is currently a semiconductor shortage!
I wanted to purchase about 200 pieces, but I was unable to do so. 6wks wait time.
Maybe they are available elsewhere, but they will be expensive.

@Onizuka18
When you purchased the K5100M it was supplied with a 1Mbit chip size (PMC Pm25LD010 2.7-3.6V 1024Kx1S)
This is not necessarily a mistake. If the vendor uses this card in a PC laptop without uefi, then the ROM will fit no problem. They don't know that you are intending to use this on a mac.

For our purposes, we always used a minimum of 2Mbit chip size (PMC Pm25LD020)
other alternatives are:
Winbond 25x20CLNIG
Macronix MX25L2006EM1I-12G

You can reference this post <EEPROM Replacement>
For external flashing <<CH341a>

thank you nikey22 & Ausdauersportler for your advice and messages. Long life the forum.
Peace

 

[StephN999]

The patch is needed for UEFI windows installations, only.

Bonjour,

Slight out of subject.

And besides memory this DSDT does not work with Xeon.

If you don't play big games Windows works very well in a virtual machine, it's better to have 16GB or more memory of course.

 

[motorm3]

• which performance problems are you referring to?
• we have endless landfills where we can dump industry goods mainly produced in a single century
• we have endless resources to make such new products
• some people have time but not the money to get a Big Sur capable Mac
• some people just like tinkering with hard- and software
• for 98% of the needs and tasks to be done in the daily (computing) work this nearly 10 year old hardware is perfectly capable - add an SSD (this was a disruptive technology) and a new (AMD) metal GPU

Just get yourself a broader perspective...why do people love 50+ years old cars or motor bikes?

 

[motorm3]

• which performance problems are you referring to?
• we have endless landfills where we can dump industry goods mainly produced in a single century
• we have endless resources to make such new products
• some people have time but not the money to get a Big Sur capable Mac
• some people just like tinkering with hard- and software
• for 98% of the needs and tasks to be done in the daily (computing) work this nearly 10 year old hardware is perfectly capable - add an SSD (this was a disruptive technology) and a new (AMD) metal GPU

Just get yourself a broader perspective...why do people love 50+ years old cars or motor bikes?

Just installed the latest 0.5.4 big sur on imac mid 2011 27 works brilliant. Only thing I've noticed is that the automatic brightness control is missing.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

This looks great, I'll try it out and let you know how it went if I have some time this weekend!

--Edit:
View attachment 1725685
I think the picture says it all?
Very smooth installation on an external SSD for now, after installing the post-install patches it seems to work as it should.
As said in the description, the iMac will kernel panic when using the regular bootpicker, but the OC bootpicker does it's job and the iMac boots into Big Sur without problems.
Im going to try it out for a week and if all works well, I'll finally upgrade for real from Catalina to Big Sur as my second daily computer. It's fantastic that my 10 year old iMac now runs the newest OS, and it does it well! I rarely use my 2019 16" MBP since my iMac can do all tasks which I need it to.

Thank you @Ausdauersportler and of course the other dev's for putting this together.

Perfect!! Of course I ran several tests but you know, the real test is after the first download of a real user.

Using this automator (quick and dirty) I had only the choice between complete OC or not. If you want to get rid of OC (in your particular case 2011 + nikey22 NVIDIA card no really needing OC) you can unpatch and re-patch the Big Sur using terminal commands. I will add this to the README.md online soon.

 

[Tomvreugdenhil]

Perfect!! Of course I ran several tests but you know, the real test is after the first download of a real user.

Using this automator (quick and dirty) I had only the choice between complete OC or not. If you want to get rid of OC (in your particular case 2011 + nikey22 NVIDIA card no really needing OC) you can unpatch and re-patch the Big Sur using terminal commands. I will add this to the README.md online soon.

Ah I understand. I however need OC to fix the windows 10 UEFI sound issue, so I'm sticking with it. Also my iMac has problems with booting and not enabling bluetooth for some reason during startup, ending with a fully booted OS but without the bluetooth keyboard working.

Now that I have selected the iMac to boot automatically using the OC boot picker (super small form USB drive), the bluetooth never fails during startup 👍 which is another benefit to me for using OC.

Thanks for the great work, I'll let you know if anything weird happens over the coming week. If not, I'm switching to Big Sur officially since this looks super neat next to my MBP.

 

[G3llings]

Bonjour,

Slight out of subject.

And besides memory this DSDT does not work with Xeon.

If you don't play big games Windows works very well in a virtual machine, it's better to have 16GB or more memory of course.

Thanks for the info, I specifically built this iMac for gaming. Does the DSDT you attached fix the audio bug for xeon? If not I could go back to running in legacy BIOS mode if needed, but then would opencore recognize the installation?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thanks for the info, I specifically built this iMac for gaming. Does the DSDT you attached fix the audio bug for xeon? If not I could go back to running in legacy BIOS mode if needed, but then would opencore recognize the installation?

Check it out and report back! Delete the other files from the ACPI folder, you have to drop the file into the ACPI folder on your OC, load the config.plist into the OpenCore Configurator, press the scan/browse button bottom/left of the ACPI window and select/enable the now loaded patch.
Just reboot with PRAM reset and choose to boot your modified OC again.

 

[searge]

A: For an MXM-A swap (the shorter/less power draw cards) there are no modifications that are needed for the heatsink on both the 21.5" and 27" model iMacs. The new X-clamp still needs be removed from the back of the card and have the screw posts drilled or tapped out in order to fit the heatsink's screws. Separate the X-Clamp using a hair dryer before drilling or tapping - it is just glued to the board. Skipping this step can fry or damage your card. If you've cleaned your heatsink, be sure to re-apply thermal pads around the GPU VRAM to prevent contact with the bare metal of the heatsink. Use electrical tape to isolate card components from the sink! Watch closely after installing the card. Take a look at the attached pictures of this post! In case you had a ATI card using a small Apple X-bracket (all MXM-A cards, 4850 and 5850) just reuse this bracket!! It fit's perfectly with all MXM-A replacement cards!

I found another way to get the screw posts tapped out quite easily. I used a common rivet pliers from my wife. Just locate screw post, push plier and twist a little bit. That‘s all.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I found another way to get the screw posts tapped out quite easily. I used a common rivet pliers from my wife. Just locate screw post, push plier and twist a little bit. That‘s all.

Best option by far is just re-using in original Apple X-brackets:

- all NVIDIA and all AMD MXM-A use the small one
- both AMD WX7100 and RX480 (both MXM-B) use the big one coming with the 2011 6970 cards

The NVIDIA X-bracket tend to bend and reusing them may bend the card, too - which is the worst thing you can have.

 

[G3llings]

Check it out and report back! Delete the other files from the ACPI folder, you have to drop the file into the ACPI folder on your OC, load the config.plist into the OpenCore Configurator, press the scan/browse button bottom/left of the ACPI window and select/enable the now loaded patch.
Just reboot with PRAM reset and choose to boot your modified OC again.

Success! You guys rock! I appreciate all of the help on here! Crazy how knowledgable you all are on this stuff. My copper shims come in for the vram today and I will install the M4000M, hopefully the OpenCore loader will display. If so then I should be good to go. I already have the Nvidia drivers installed in High Sierra and just have to do the same under Windows.

 

[G3llings]

Also, for anyone using OC on an SD card, I found these on Amazon. Should fit pretty well into the SD slot without sticking out so far. They should show up today as well and I will get pictures.

 

[Kidfa]

Thank you Raod,
I

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...

thanks Raod,
I saw this one and a link in the Q/A about pre-made usb files by xanderon.

I think I’ll try that!

 

[peekpt]

I decided to test Catalina Loader iMac 12.2 2011 with Mod GPU K610m with Patched Sur, I open Configurator and checked Sleep fix, and audio fix, saved and reboot , so far so good , but I feel the audio it's a bit different also the maximum brightness is a bit low comparing with stock with no brightness control. Is any way to fix this? thanks

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I decided to test Catalina Loader iMac 12.2 2011 with Mod GPU K610m with Patched Sur, I open Configurator and checked Sleep fix, and audio fix, saved and reboot , so far so good , but I feel the audio it's a bit different also the maximum brightness is a bit low comparing with stock with no brightness control. Is any way to fix this? thanks

Please add a signature to your account with our hardware. The please tell me which (possible ancient) version of OC you are using. Complete information is great, really great! At last check FAQ->Q18 of the CatalinaLoader/OpenCore post. Sound fixes are working only on the target hardware and are only usable for Windows. We had at first only a 27" DSDT patch, now there are two. But disable them if you are not using Windows.

 

[nandor690]

Does anyone else have a problem with windows 10 crashes on their 2011 iMac? Iv installed it multiple times to the same result. I’m using the latest opencore from this thread

 

[marerl]

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)

Hi, is it possible to just add nikey22 GTX870 ROM. And put it in Kepler directory mapp to use your nvflash_linux ?
Rgds E""""

 

[drsriosmex]

@xanderon, congrats this tool is brilliant!
I have an iMac 21.5-inch Mid 2010 with an upgraded 3.6 GHz Intel Core i5, 12 GB RAM and a failing ATI Radeon HD 4670 256 MB GPU. I bought a NVIDIA Quadro K1100m which I installed and gave me a black screen with 2 diagnostic LED lights in the masterboard, so I assume it needs flashing. I ordered the CH341A USB to flash the card and I'll be waiting for about a month for it to arrive, but I found your method to do it via SSH to my iMac. Using the faulty HD 4670 card I tested the pendrive method, I removed the .rom files to be on the safe side, and I can remotely access the machine. Now I'm going to try the 'Swap Hardware' and the reminder steps but I don't know which and how to put back the .rom files in the folder structure. Should I only put back the 'Quadro_Beta1.2' folder with the K1100.rom file inside and ignore the other .rom files?
Once this is done, the next thing would be to SSH my iMac, access the working directory and then read the 'README'? Am I following the right steps?
Thanks in advance for your help.

Never mind. I managed to get my K1100m by following the steps from this video

Everything works except brightness control, I'm trying to do the Open core stuff in High Sierra but when trying to download the loader dmg it's always detected as containing virus and the download gets blocked.

 

[peekpt]

...when trying to download the loader dmg it's always detected as containing virus and the download gets blocked.

instead of download click copy to your account then from your account select to download and then you get a message to download at your own risk

 

[Zuuro]

Hello,
Big thanks to ausdauersportler, nikey22 and other is this thread.
Got a working (new) K4100m in 2009 iMac 27.
I have now ordered an GTX 880m. If anyone is interested in the K4100m can send me a PM.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

instead of download click copy to your account then from your account select to download and then you get a message to download at your own risk

To both of you:

Please check the first post of this thread, search the OpenCore section and than search the post containing all recent OpenCore packages. The latest upload is only a few hours old.

The documentation of this thread is the first post and the thread itself, not some outdated YouTube videos...