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

[davidg5678]

I've been having a problem where my High Sierra installation seems to be corrupting my Big Sur installation. I have each operating system installed on a separate SSD, and I am using the latest version of OCLP. I tried updating my Big Sur installation from 11.2.3 to 11.3, but the process kept getting hung-up partway through. When booting into Big Sur, I would often see the gray "prohibited" symbol show up, or the loading bar would just hang halfway through. I was reading the OCLP GitHub issues and found something useful, though: https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/issues/157

It sounds like I was experiencing a problem where High Sierra was corrupting the SecureBoot image of Big Sur each time I booted between my two drives. This would explain why when I was in High Sierra, the Big Sur Drive appeared as several different and inaccessible partitions (the normal 11.3 drive with"- Data" appended to it, and another called "Update").

My solution to fix this, which seems to be working so far (I am writing this from my Big Sur drive) was to first prevent all of the Big Sur volumes from auto-mounting at startup on High Sierra. This was accomplished by adding each volume UUID to a blocklist in High Sierra: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-7942

I then needed to reset the PRAM and SMC ---rebooting into High Sierra after resetting the PRAM, of course, the Big Sur disks weren't mounted by the OS (yay!). I was able to select my Catalina Loader SD card within the High Sierra System Preferences, and boot into OCLP automatically. After selecting Big Sur as my primary boot disk in OCLP, the computer loaded up the Big Sur SSD and finished the 11.3 delta update that it had been working on the day before. (I should also mention that I had to restart my computer about a dozen times throughout this process before things started behaving.)

I hope that this will prove to be a good long-term solution, and I will update this post if things stop working again. I did not disable SecureBoot as suggested in the OCLP GitHub Issue, but the 11.3 updates worked, so hopefully, I'm in the clear. I know that I could sort of fix things by only using one OS (Big Sur), but sometimes I like running legacy programs on my computer, as well as using target disk mode, so I want 10.13 installed. Not to mention the fact that High Sierra is also useful for repairing things when I corrupt Big Sur by mistake...

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I've been having a problem where my High Sierra installation seems to be corrupting my Big Sur installation. I have each operating system installed on a separate SSD, and I am using the latest version of OCLP. I tried updating my Big Sur installation from 11.2.3 to 11.3, but the process kept getting hung-up partway through. When booting into Big Sur, I would often see the gray "prohibited" symbol show up, or the loading bar would just hang halfway through. I was reading the OCLP GitHub issues and found something useful, though: https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/issues/157

It sounds like I was experiencing a problem where High Sierra was corrupting the SecureBoot image of Big Sur each time I booted between my two drives. This would explain why when I was in High Sierra, the Big Sur Drive appeared as several different and inaccessible partitions (the normal 11.3 drive with"- Data" appended to it, and another called "Update").

My solution to fix this, which seems to be working so far (I am writing this from my Big Sur drive) was to first prevent all of the Big Sur volumes from auto-mounting at startup on High Sierra. This was accomplished by adding each volume UUID to a blocklist in High Sierra: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-7942

I then needed to reset the PRAM and SMC ---rebooting into High Sierra after resetting the PRAM, of course, the Big Sur disks weren't mounted by the OS (yay!). I was able to select my Catalina Loader SD card within the High Sierra System Preferences, and boot into OCLP automatically. After selecting Big Sur as my primary boot disk in OCLP, the computer loaded up the Big Sur SSD and finished the 11.3 delta update that it had been working on the day before. (I should also mention that I had to restart my computer about a dozen times throughout this process before things started behaving.)

I hope that this will prove to be a good long-term solution, and I will update this post if things stop working again. I did not disable SecureBoot as suggested in the OCLP GitHub Issue, but the 11.3 updates worked, so hopefully, I'm in the clear. I know that I could sort of fix things by only using one OS (Big Sur), but sometimes I like running legacy programs on my computer, as well as using target disk mode, so I want 10.13 installed. Not to mention the fact that High Sierra is also useful for repairing things when I corrupt Big Sur by mistake...

1. We had some reports about this broken 11.3 installation on Big Sur, only systems, too. So I doubt your double boot system can be the root cause. There was a 2010/WX4150 user just shutting down the system and after a night and a reboot the installation proceeds and finished successfully. I have no idea what the problem really is. That I why I ask for verbose boot and dmesg output after trouble.

2. The Big Sur APFS add ons cannot be read or understood by High Sierra. This "feature" is well known for a while and your solution to block mounting in fstab, too - nice finding nevertheless.

3. It is convenient to boot into High Sierra using OLCP with an AMD GPU because you get the same 4K HEVC and H.264 acceraletion.

4. You can fix the SecureBootModel problem reading this issue (latest post there) - i.e. you can leave SecureBootModel enabled and boot into Mojave (installed through OC) or High Sierra (natively installed).

5. Sierra will not boot using OCLP spoofing the iMacPro1,1 - the system was never supported with this old macOS version.

 

[goldfish5252]

Congratulations to your successful effort and investment ! That's close to a M1 MacMini without the monitor.

Well, that is not the "maximum" upgrade yet 😊

The RAM can be max out to 32GB.
The Wifi and BT can be upgraded to ac & 4.2.
The USB 2 can be upgraded to 3.0 if you dare.
The GPU can be further upgraded to WX7100 or its close 2nd RX480, but unfortunately both have altogether disappeared from the market...

Hi Kenny,
Thanks for the suggestions. Been wanting to upgrade the Wifi to the BT to the 802.11ac protocol but the MacosX upgrade kit was like $ 150. Will definitely try maxing the RAM up to 32 GB. Read about the USB 3 upgrade but won't the motherboard not recognise the upgrade?

For the GPU probably wait for the supply crunch to ease first before looking for an RX480. Is it supported by Xanderon's SSH USB stick?

iMac 2010 was a fun upgrade and really reignited the basic Linux skills I learnt like 20 years ago haha.

 

[kitroughtrash]

Updated OCLP to 0.1.1 and then updated Big Sur to 11.3 like I own a modern Mac!
Actually, due to the persistent work of everyone involved in this project, and some diggin into my machineon my part, I DO own a modern Mac now and not a 10year system.
Congratulations and thanks!

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi Kenny,
Thanks for the suggestions. Been wanting to upgrade the Wifi to the BT to the 802.11ac protocol but the MacosX upgrade kit was like $ 150. Will definitely try maxing the RAM up to 32 GB. Read about the USB 3 upgrade but won't the motherboard not recognise the upgrade?

For the GPU probably wait for the supply crunch to ease first before looking for an RX480. Is it supported by Xanderon's SSH USB stick?

iMac 2010 was a fun upgrade and really reignited the basic Linux skills I learnt like 20 years ago haha.

There is this other closely related Bluetooth Upgrade thread which has a 30-50 USD price tag. All available GPU options supported by the Linux flash tool are listed on post #1, so is the RX480.

 

[overshoot]

Hi guys,

Can I make a ROM for my GTX660M using part of the GTX680M just released?
I am thinking of adding the EFI part of the GTX680M Rom with the available GTX660M Apple Rom.

Is that a stupid idea?

 

[FlorisVN]

Hi guys,

Can I make a ROM for my GTX660M using part of the GTX680M just released?
I am thinking of adding the EFI part of the GTX680M Rom with the available GTX660M Apple Rom.

Is that a stupid idea?

Feel free to try of course, and sharing is always nice !
would be great if we can even get more roms out there !

 

[motorm3]

Does anyone know how to get windows brightness control the slider is missing and screen temp is at 60c all the time when I uninstall NVidia drivers slider shows up but don't do nothing but when install NVidia drivers again slider dissappears. Everything else runs good big sur 11.3 and windows 10 Pro

 

[ChrisCaro]

Does anyone know how to get windows brightness control the slider is missing and screen temp is at 60c all the time when I uninstall NVidia drivers slider shows up but don't do nothing but when install NVidia drivers again slider dissappears. Everything else runs good big sur 11.3 and windows 10 Pro

Try post #8324.

 

[TrooperOrange]

Just realized I posted this in the wrong thread. Trying again here, sorry for the duplicate.


Hi Everyone,
Just trying to get pointed in the right direction troubleshooting an issue.

I have a Late 2009 iMac 27" originally i5 and 4850. Recently upgraded to i7 870 and a K2100m. Current installed OS is High Sierra, goal is Big Sur.

I read this guide through several times, taken notes and tried to do everything correctly but am unable to boot to a GUI and am at a loss. Any help would be appreciated.

What I did:

• Created OpenCore/BigSur EFI thumb drive in High Sierra.
• Installed new CPU and GPU, everything went well. GPU is one I got on eBay pre-flashed an K2100m.
• Can boot to EFI menu.
• At this point it doesn't matter if I try to boot existing OS, or install Big Sur. In both cases it will get to the point it should load the GUI (I believe) and then halts.

Attempted troubleshooting:

• I have tried doing several different OpenCore builds, tried different settings, forcing metal, minimal and moderate SMBIOS, Disabled SIP and Secureboot. Manually specified the model etc...
• Mounted EFI, looked at logs, have some kernel panics and the OpenCore logs, unsure what I'm looking for TBH.

Logs Attached

 

[herrdude]

Just realized I posted this in the wrong thread. Trying again here, sorry for the duplicate.


Hi Everyone,
Just trying to get pointed in the right direction troubleshooting an issue.

I have a Late 2009 iMac 27" originally i5 and 4850. Recently upgraded to i7 870 and a K2100m. Current installed OS is High Sierra, goal is Big Sur.

I read this guide through several times, taken notes and tried to do everything correctly but am unable to boot to a GUI and am at a loss. Any help would be appreciated.

What I did:

• Created OpenCore/BigSur EFI thumb drive in High Sierra.
• Installed new CPU and GPU, everything went well. GPU is one I got on eBay pre-flashed an K2100m.
• Can boot to EFI menu.
• At this point it doesn't matter if I try to boot existing OS, or install Big Sur. In both cases it will get to the point it should load the GUI (I believe) and then halts.

Attempted troubleshooting:

• I have tried doing several different OpenCore builds, tried different settings, forcing metal, minimal and moderate SMBIOS, Disabled SIP and Secureboot. Manually specified the model etc...
• Mounted EFI, looked at logs, have some kernel panics and the OpenCore logs, unsure what I'm looking for TBH.

Logs Attached

Did you try OLCP? It's the latest and greatest way to proceed. It's in the first post.

Cheers!

 

[jeff31]

Backlight decrease on iMac mid-2011

I have a problem of BackLight decreased by 50% on 27" iMac12,2 mid-2011
with a NVIDIA GTX 780M flashed BR2/BR3+WinFix,
whatever the OS (Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur /OpenCore 0.6.8)

I have no backlighting problems with the EG2 version but I can't boot into Windows.

Would you have an idea?
Thanks for your feedback

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Just realized I posted this in the wrong thread. Trying again here, sorry for the duplicate.


Hi Everyone,
Just trying to get pointed in the right direction troubleshooting an issue.

I have a Late 2009 iMac 27" originally i5 and 4850. Recently upgraded to i7 870 and a K2100m. Current installed OS is High Sierra, goal is Big Sur.

I read this guide through several times, taken notes and tried to do everything correctly but am unable to boot to a GUI and am at a loss. Any help would be appreciated.

What I did:

• Created OpenCore/BigSur EFI thumb drive in High Sierra.
• Installed new CPU and GPU, everything went well. GPU is one I got on eBay pre-flashed an K2100m.
• Can boot to EFI menu.
• At this point it doesn't matter if I try to boot existing OS, or install Big Sur. In both cases it will get to the point it should load the GUI (I believe) and then halts.

Attempted troubleshooting:

• I have tried doing several different OpenCore builds, tried different settings, forcing metal, minimal and moderate SMBIOS, Disabled SIP and Secureboot. Manually specified the model etc...
• Mounted EFI, looked at logs, have some kernel panics and the OpenCore logs, unsure what I'm looking for TBH.

Logs Attached

Drop opencore and boot straight into High Sierra. If you can do this go ahead step by step, i.e. add OCLP with SBM disabled an boot HS. If this works go ahead.
If you can’t do the first step assume a hardware problem and solve this yourself.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Backlight decrease on iMac mid-2011

I have a problem of BackLight decreased by 50% on 27" iMac12,2 mid-2011
with a NVIDIA GTX 780M flashed BR2/BR3+WinFix,
whatever the OS (Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur /OpenCore 0.6.8)

I have no backlighting problems with the EG2 version but I can't boot into Windows.

Would you have an idea?
Thanks for your feedback

AppleBacklightFixup - or read the posts where you got the BIOS from.

 

[KennyW]

Hi Kenny,
Thanks for the suggestions. Been wanting to upgrade the Wifi to the BT to the 802.11ac protocol but the MacosX upgrade kit was like $ 150. Will definitely try maxing the RAM up to 32 GB. Read about the USB 3 upgrade but won't the motherboard not recognise the upgrade?

For the GPU probably wait for the supply crunch to ease first before looking for an RX480. Is it supported by Xanderon's SSH USB stick?

iMac 2010 was a fun upgrade and really reignited the basic Linux skills I learnt like 20 years ago haha.

USB 3 works => https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/usb-3-wifi-ac-bt4-2-for-imac-27-mid-2010.2269396/

 

[overshoot]

Feel free to try of course, and sharing is always nice !
would be great if we can even get more roms out there !

I am ready to try but I have no clue how to do so.
I own a repair shop so I have the tools to de-solder the Rom and try but I need a bit of guidance on how to extract the EFI part of this 680M Rom part.

If there's a link on how to do so, please share.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I am ready to try but I have no clue how to do so.
I own a repair shop so I have the tools to de-solder the Rom and try but I need a bit of guidance on how to extract the EFI part of this 680M Rom part.

If there's a link on how to do so, please share.

This does not work at all. The re-engineering and test part is so complicated, one cannot simply send a single link with knowledge gathered in weeks, months, years of reading from different sources.

This is like:
I have a book about programming in C in my shelf, please explain in a few words how to write a metal gpu driver for my old ATi GPU. We are waiting for years for a solution like that and even former employees of AMD (graphics driver programmers) tried that.

 

[terabay]

hi. folks.
I bought MSI GTX 870M 3G and it's being shipped now.

So the conclusion is it's not supported at all with whatever original rom it has? My iMac is 2011 27" btw. Thanks.

 

[herrdude]

hi. folks.
I bought MSI GTX 870M 3G and it's being shipped now.

So the conclusion is it's not supported at all with whatever original rom it has? My iMac is 2011 27" btw. Thanks.

Did you read the first post? You will be pleasantly surprised how much information there is.

 

[terabay]

Did you read the first post? You will be pleasantly surprised how much information there is.

Yes. I did it after ordering 870M. Just wanted to confirm if it does not work.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Yes. I did it after ordering 870M. Just wanted to confirm if it does not work.

That was obviously a mistake. We have a now by far more supported models than unsupported ones (even if one takes the memory variants into account). It becomes an act of art to order an unsupported one, but it is not impossible

(I guess there exist some more Kepler based cards not listed like the GTX 660M)

 

[terabay]

That was obviously a mistake. We have a now by far more supported models than unsupported ones (even if one takes the memory variants into account). It becomes an act of art to order an unsupported one, but it is not impossible

(I guess there exist some more Kepler based cards not listed like the GTX 660M)

That's because I checked only the very 1st post not clicking the detail link of GTX 870M. ah.

Btw, will I be able to use it in Windows 10 w/o MacOS? if yes, it's a half-successful purchase!

 

[Sovaboris]

** NVIDIA Quadro K4100M Mac Edition ROM **
Genuine Native Boot Screen & Brightness Control
​

View attachment 942198


After much testing and research, I've put together a ROM for the NVIDIA Quadro K4100M which will allow:

• Genuine native brightness control
• Genuine ‘gray’ early-boot screen
• Genuine macOS bootloader compliance

Requirements:
BACKUP YOUR ORIGINAL ROM before doing anything!
iMac12,2 (27-inch Mid 2011) Mac-942B59F58194171B (Tested machine)
BootROM: 87.0.0.0.0. Please use High Sierra to update your BootROM to latest version.

GPU Variant: N15E-Q3-A2
Dell K4100M vbios: 80.04.E8.00.1D
HP K4100M vbios: 80.04.E8.00.22

tested card with the following vram:
View attachment 1729324 View attachment 1743819

This ROM does not require a 3rd party bootloader like OpenCore.
This is an alternative ROM and mainly for the audience that just want a “drop-in” answer to upgrading their video card on the iMac 2011. I appreciate the ongoing ROM testing done by @Ausdauersportler, @highvoltage12v. With their efforts we can expand its utility across multiple macOS versions and peripherals.

Brightness Control Stepping Modifcation:
-Turn computer on, hold down Command(⌘)-R
-Choose Utilities > Terminal
-Enter:csrutil disable
-MacOS Catalina: requires you to make root writeable: sudo mount -uw /
-Reboot
-Download and open 'Kext Utility v2.6.6'

-Navigate to S/L/E (System/Library/Extensions)
-Copy "AppleBacklight.kext" to Desktop
-Edit: AppleBacklight.kext/Contents/Info.plist
-Scroll down to: IOKitPersonalities > AppleIntelPanelA > ApplePanels
-There you find several Apple LCD profiles.
-For the iMac 2011 27" machine locate:

<key>F10Ta007</key>
<data>
ABEABgALABQAHAAnADMAPwBOAFwAZwBzAIEAkQClAL8A2wD/
</data>

-Change the <data> section to:
ABEAAgA3AF8AigCzAOsBJAFnAakB1AIJAlQCogL4A00DlgRpBGk=

-Drag your modded kext into Kext Utility, allow it correct permissions
-Applebacklight.kext.bak folder will be created
-Reboot

The above data pattern will allow for a wider span of steppings for the brightness control and utilizes more of the capacity of the HD3000. If you have a different machine, your panel ID can be found by going to System Preferences > Displays > Color > Open Profile > mmod

Этот ROM не требует использования внешнего синтаксического анализатора EDID или отдельного модуля стека графического ядра и консоли, но я пока оставил их там. Он использует встроенный EDID_override_Protocol, UGA_protocol и GOP_protocol. ПЗУ основан на сборке TianoCore EDK2, в которой находится собственный общий видеодрайвер. Во время загрузки efiROM отвечает за рендеринг видео до того, как управление будет плавно передано другому дескриптору, видеодрайверам macOS. Это называется предзагрузочной конфигурацией.

Предостережения после установки / Ошибки:
-16-битный сбой разрешения UGA_DRAW_PROTOCOL - временное решение: активируйте цикл сна и вернитесь, теперь это должно устранить проблему.

Предупреждение : как указывалось ранее, эти карты основаны на пакете флэш-памяти WSON, и поэтому их гораздо сложнее восстановить после плохой флэш-памяти. Пожалуйста, примите меры предосторожности и проверьте мигание.


По словам Стива Джобса, « это безумно здорово! ”

файлы:
K4100M_BR.rom - стабильно с mem: 2000Mhz, TDP: 862Mhz
K4100M_UGA.rom - разогнан с mem: 2200Mhz, TDP: 967Mhz

******
ОБНОВИТЬ
******
09 02 2021: работаем над Catalina 10.15.7
07 02 2021: проверена стабильность @ 2200Mhz и 967Mhz, спасибо [USER = 1219754] @ Ri7 [/ USER] за тестирование, K4100M_UGA
09 08 2020: работаем над BigSur!
11 11 2020: работа над High Sierra 10.13.6, обновление безопасности 2020-006
24.09.2020: работа над High Sierra 10.13.6, обновление безопасности 2020-005
21 07 2020: работает над Mojave 10.14.6, обновление безопасности 2020-004 (18G6020)
20 07 2020: работа над High Sierra 10.13.6, обновление безопасности 2020-004
20 07 2020: работаем над Catalina 10.15.4
20 07 2020: работаем над модами Catalina 10.15.6 + kext

При нажатии (⌘) -R - появляется яблоко и зависает в этом режиме. Что делать ? И иногда он не видит мышь и икру.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

При нажатии (⌘) -R - появляется яблоко и зависает в этом режиме. Что делать ? И иногда он не видит мышь и икру.

Versuche es bitte noch einmal in englischer Sprache, vielen Dank!

 

[m0bil]

Successfully upgraded my 3rd iMac this time with the K3100m.
I initially tried the K3100_V4.rom but had bad results so flashed to the K3100_BFR.rom and its working great so far in Sierra.

Card

View attachment 1768019

_V4 no internal display and garbled video out on external display.

View attachment 1768020

Running fine on _BFR

View attachment 1768023

EDIT:
I'm impressed with the card and mod.
After running valley the card is only at 47' C thats with fans set low.

View attachment 1768049

View attachment 1768050

This Valley performance looks low, I took this picture after installing a K3100M on an almost identical iMac:

Maybe that's the reason you see the card not warming.