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

[herrdude]

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

불행히도 우리는 여기서 러시아어를 사용하지 않습니다.

 

[overshoot]

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.

Well I did not expect that it was re-engineering the entire Rom.
The idea was:
- We have a dump of the GTX660M taken from a real iMac but missing the EFI part.
- We have the GTX680M Rom now working with the EFI part.
- Can we just take the code off of the GTX680M to add it to the GTX660M Rom dump?!

The answer is no. Ok I move on. I'm not asking anyone to teach me how to develop a GPU bios obviously.

 

[FlorisVN]

Well I did not expect that it was re-engineering the entire Rom.
The idea was:
- We have a dump of the GTX660M taken from a real iMac but missing the EFI part.
- We have the GTX680M Rom now working with the EFI part.
- Can we just take the code off of the GTX680M to add it to the GTX660M Rom dump?!

The answer is no. Ok I move on. I'm not asking anyone to teach me how to develop a GPU bios obviously.

yeah creating roms is not that easy, unfortunately.
But your thought is of course very nice to create a new rom.

perhaps someday we will also se a gtx650m rom, who knows..
Just be patient.. 😉

 

[The_Croupier]

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

View attachment 1769311

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

Yeah good pick up, I've been mulling over this since I upgraded the GPU, even though I didn't notice the poor stats immediately I did notice the system being laggy.

I seem to have CPU throttling going on. Its quite strange actually. After updating HS right after installing the GPU i got a restart a beep from ram, seems that coincidently during the update that the RHS 2 x Ram slots died. No matter the type/brand/capacity modules I use they are stone cold dead.

This coincided with the CPU and ODD fans ramping to full speed but because I also installed a SSD and OCLP BS I didn't pay to much attention to it.

After running geekB 5 i realised my performance was cut in half.

I striped the Logic board down and applied contact cleaner with light toothbrushing to all main connectors with no positive results.

After some serious googling I thought it may be the PSU as this is the unit I repaired.

So i swapped out the PSU and the fans were normal and I thought problems solved, wishful thinking with these awesome dinosaurs.

Valley results from same rig with swapped out PSU under OCLP BS:

But the story doesn't stop there.

So I take the PSU that I believed was the reason for the 2011 cpu throttling and put it in the rig that i removed the PSU that seemed to have solved the problem.

To my surprise the donor 2011 performed perfect with the PSU i thought was causing the problem.

So ok it works, lets swap them back. I reinstall the PSU to its original home. Fans ramp 100%

I swap back again to the donor PSU, Fans ramp %100 but both PSUs work fine in a identical 2011 both i7 2600.

I have noticed that ambient temp looks high on the fan ramp iMac regardless of PSU, and the one time the imac worked well with the swapped PSU the amb temp was inline with with the general cold start temp of the other monitored components.

I will be pulling the cpu fan out next and swapping it out to see if I can isolate the ambient temp issue which i think might be causing the throttling.

its just this PSU swap did my head in regarding diagnosis. Thats the biggest challenge with these old rigs. Something seemlessly unlrealated to the issue can actually be the cause.

If you have a look at the GPU valley benchmarks uploaded to post 1 you can see that other users have similarly throttled performance with the same setup, I suggest to them to investigate the subpar performance.

At least I know its not the card. If it's the logic board then I'm likely screwed and will have to wait to find a bargain basement imac sent to the scrapheap.

 

[B0URNE]

@kar0sh1 I have a 770m in a 21.5" 2011 iMac. Displayport on the back works fine. I don't recommend putting an MXM-B card in a 21.5" iMac but if you're installing it into a 27" it should be fine. I have a k2000m in a 2010 21.5" iMac which works fine, External display works. So yes a 770m in a 2009-2010 iMac should work fine and have display port output. Just make sure the card has a Dell bios.

Hi @highvoltage12v

I have been slowly following this forum and upgrading my iMac2011 21.5" with parts for uni study/play and it has been quite a fun and rewarding exercise. Now I've reached a wall dealing with a graphics card problem.

My system setup is as follows:

System imac 21.5" mid 2011 (PSU 205W)
CPU: i7-2600s (upgrade)
GPU: Dell GeForce GTX 770M Nick[D]vB vbios
Mem: 16GB
SSD: 500GB EVO
DVR: None
OS: Win10H2

For all intensive purposes the 770M with this combo works fine for regular productivity work but it stops there with gaming. I'm experiencing issues where under medium-heavy gaming load the GPU clock cycles from max/min value of 850MHz/300MHz from a starting temp 48C to finally a stable ~70C. According to the GPUShark it states under Limiting policies (NVIDIA) "GPU power limit reach". You can see the throttling on the snapshot above.

How can this be the case as I thought the total TDP with all these above upgrades was less than the 205W afforded by the PSU? If this is a GPU architecture specific _driver_ feature can I change the power limiting policy? I am really puzzled as the 765M with identical TDP (75W) has been shown to work well in the 21.5.

Any help would be greatly appreciative from you and the community.

 

[herrdude]

Hi @highvoltage12v

I have been slowly following this forum and upgrading my iMac2011 21.5" with parts for uni study/play and it has been quite a fun and rewarding exercise. Now I've reached a wall dealing with a graphics card problem.

My system setup is as follows:
View attachment 1769493View attachment 1769489

System imac 21.5" mid 2011 (PSU 205W)
CPU: i7-2600s (upgrade)
GPU: Dell GeForce GTX 770M Nick[D]vB vbios
Mem: 16GB
SSD: 500GB EVO
DVR: None
OS: Win10H2

For all intensive purposes the 770M with this combo works fine for regular productivity work but it stops there with gaming. I'm experiencing issues where under medium-heavy gaming load the GPU clock cycles from max/min value of 850MHz/300MHz from a starting temp 48C to finally a stable ~70C. According to the GPUShark it states under Limiting policies (NVIDIA) "GPU power limit reach". You can see the throttling on the snapshot above.

How can this be the case as I thought the total TDP with these upgrades was less than the 205W afforded by the PSU? If this is a GPU architecture specific _driver_ feature can I change the power limiting policy? I am really puzzled as the 765M with identical TDP (75W) has been shown to work well in the 21.5.

Any help would be greatly appreciative from you and the community.

It's interesting to note that in the table of working cards in the first post, neither card (765m nor 770m) are marked as working with the 21.5 iMac. I suspect because of the TDP not being sufficient enough AND that these cards require the three-pipe heat sink.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I have noticed that ambient temp looks high on the fan ramp iMac regardless of PSU, and the one time the imac worked well with the swapped PSU the amb temp was inline with with the general cold start temp of the other monitored components.

I will be pulling the cpu fan out next and swapping it out to see if I can isolate the ambient temp issue which i think might be causing the throttling.

Although not really fitting to your complete story:

The ambient sensor is connected on the bottom left side near the CPU fan and power on switch. When disconnecting to you can rip of two little components off the board (sub 1mm, nearly invisible). If only of these components one is gone the ambient sensor never comes back to normal values and more importantly because of this the CPU will not boost and every OpenGL test will be cut to half of the performance approximately.

How to fix this you can find here....

 

[The_Croupier]

Yeah good pick up, I've been mulling over this since I upgraded the GPU, even though I didn't notice the poor stats immediately I did notice the system being laggy.

Quoting myself to highlight the conclusion of the throttling.

Pulled the logic board out and removed CPU fan, detached Amp temp sensor, it had a slightly wet feeling, the insulated cables are slowly deteriorating and rubbing them resulted with black gunk on fingers and a hair like slither of plastic. On one of my 21.5 2011's I have had this fan cables insulation totally deteriorate and causing a major shorty blowing several components on the LB so upgraders beware, if you are disassembling check all the wiring for corrosion.

Happy to report wiping down the cables and jiggling them + temporarily placing the sensor near the HDD fan and the issues are gone.

So happy it is not logic board or PSU related, saved a bunch of money.

Let this be a lesson to upgraders, s##t can happen during a upgrade that is totally unrelated to the upgrade and completely throw the diagnostics off. Cover all your bases first and check everything before resorting to the iMac GPU thread helpline.

Happy days here, smoking fast iMac again, yeaaaahaooow!!!

 

[TimothyL]

Just came across this thread and don’t feel like reading 14,000 posts... I recently acquired a 2011 21.5” iMac that is efi locked. Does anybody here have the capability to unlock it? I can still use it if I put in a drive with an operating system already on it but I just got it to resell it and would like to sell it unlocked.

 

[The_Croupier]

Although not really fitting to your complete story:

The ambient sensor is connected on the bottom left side near the CPU fan and power on switch. When disconnecting to you can rip of two little components off the board (sub 1mm, nearly invisible). If only of these components one is gone the ambient sensor never comes back to normal values and more importantly because of this the CPU will not boost and every OpenGL test will be cut to half of the performance approximately.

How to fix this you can find here....

Ha ha @Ausdauersportler , I was typing my report while you were replying, yes good point, it pays to be very careful especially with old iMacs that have never been touched, the connectors can seem fused after 11 years.

Classic example 2 days ago I popped off the u.fl socket of the Bluetooth board when trying to release the antenna cable to attach the extension cable 😳🙄

 

[The_Croupier]

Just came across this thread and don’t feel like reading 14,000 posts... I recently acquired a 2011 21.5” iMac that is efi locked. Does anybody here have the capability to unlock it? I can still use it if I put in a drive with an operating system already on it but I just got it to resell it and would like to sell it unlocked.

Well you just came across the wrong thread. And if you dont want to read then I suggest you ask SIRI.

 

[herrdude]

Just came across this thread and don’t feel like reading 14,000 posts... I recently acquired a 2011 21.5” iMac that is efi locked. Does anybody here have the capability to unlock it? I can still use it if I put in a drive with an operating system already on it but I just got it to resell it and would like to sell it unlocked.

www.apple.com

 

[The_Croupier]

View attachment 1769493

You have a massive void where your ODD should be, therefore you have pretty much zero cooling fan air entering you GPU heatsink.

The ODD and its black plastic housing creates a effective channel for the air to flow through the heatsink fins.

You have effectively removed the GPU cooling system. 😳

 

[B0URNE]

You have a massive void where your ODD should be, therefore you have pretty much zero cooling fan air entering you GPU heatsink.

The ODD and its black plastic housing creates a effective channel for the air to flow through the heatsink fins.

You have effectively removed the GPU cooling system. 😳

The ODD removal served two purposes. First and foremost to allow for more power to be drawn by the 770M GPU, second was to provide space for a second SSD. I had decided the latter would redirect much need power away from the GPU so left a void. There is still airflow and the GPU can maintain ~70C on average but I plan to add x2 50mm fans directly on the heatsink.

The BIG question is why the GPU is throttling it's clock frequency when still within thermal limits @highvoltage12v @MichaelDT ?

Can it be possible my current PSU is not up to scratch, did I incorrectly calculate the power requirements, or alternatively there is a fault with the card? If either how can I ascertain where is the problem and can it be resolved.

It would be a real triumph for this to work and operate to it's full potential.

 

[B0URNE]

It's interesting to note that in the table of working cards in the first post, neither card (765m nor 770m) are marked as working with the 21.5 iMac. I suspect because of the TDP not being sufficient enough AND that these cards require the three-pipe heat sink.

I can definitely attest that it works both under MacOS and Windows environments for productivity but it remains to be understood why under med-high gpu loads does it clock throttle. I honestly don't understand what is wrong.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

The ODD removal served two purposes. First and foremost to allow for more power to be drawn by the 770M GPU, second was to provide space for a second SSD. I had decided the latter would redirect much need power away from the GPU so left a void. There is still airflow and the GPU can maintain ~70C on average but I plan to add x2 50mm fans directly on the heatsink.

The BIG question is why the GPU is throttling it's clock frequency when still within thermal limits @highvoltage12v @MichaelDT ?

Can it be possible my current PSU is not up to scratch, did I incorrectly calculate the power requirements, or alternatively there is a fault with the card? If either how can I ascertain where is the problem and can it be resolved.

It would be a real triumph for this to work and operate to it's full potential.

first post -> hardware problems -> 20 (came up twice, today)

about airflow: the ODD fan is sufficient to cool if and only if one is willing to accept the basic facts of physics. opening up the air channel directed below the ODD from the fan to the heat exchanger cannot make the situation better.

 

[ChrisCaro]

Hi @highvoltage12v

I have been slowly following this forum and upgrading my iMac2011 21.5" with parts for uni study/play and it has been quite a fun and rewarding exercise. Now I've reached a wall dealing with a graphics card problem.

My system setup is as follows:
View attachment 1769493View attachment 1769489

System imac 21.5" mid 2011 (PSU 205W)
CPU: i7-2600s (upgrade)
GPU: Dell GeForce GTX 770M Nick[D]vB vbios
Mem: 16GB
SSD: 500GB EVO
DVR: None
OS: Win10H2

For all intensive purposes the 770M with this combo works fine for regular productivity work but it stops there with gaming. I'm experiencing issues where under medium-heavy gaming load the GPU clock cycles from max/min value of 850MHz/300MHz from a starting temp 48C to finally a stable ~70C. According to the GPUShark it states under Limiting policies (NVIDIA) "GPU power limit reach". You can see the throttling on the snapshot above.

How can this be the case as I thought the total TDP with all these above upgrades was less than the 205W afforded by the PSU? If this is a GPU architecture specific _driver_ feature can I change the power limiting policy? I am really puzzled as the 765M with identical TDP (75W) has been shown to work well in the 21.5.

Any help would be greatly appreciative from you and the community.

I don't think the 21.5" imacs came with a 3 pipe gpu, did they? If not that could be the source problem. You could be reaching the limitation of the heat pipes.

You could channel the airflow a bit better so it doesn't bleed out into other areas. Definitely tape up the dvd slot, you will feel airflow bleed there. Some posts on here and even a thread regarding improving the airflow by ducting.

What thermal paste did you use? I'll admit not my brightest moment I used k5 pro on the gpu die which resulted in reduced performance.

 

[B0URNE]

first post -> hardware problems -> 20 (came up twice, today)

about airflow: the ODD fan is sufficient to cool if and only if one is willing to accept the basic facts of physics. opening up the air channel directed below the ODD from the fan to the heat exchanger cannot make the situation better.

Thank you @Ausdauersportler it was a good read.

I'll return the ODD black plastic housing back to help direct the flow towards the heatsink to improve thermal dissipation.

Hopefully the 770M integration within my setup isn't flawed and can continue.

 

[B0URNE]

I don't think the 21.5" imacs came with a 3 pipe gpu, did they? If not that could be the source problem. You could be reaching the limitation of the heat pipes.

You could channel the airflow a bit better so it doesn't bleed out into other areas. Definitely tape up the dvd slot, you will feel airflow bleed there. Some posts on here and even a thread regarding improving the airflow by ducting.

What thermal paste did you use? I'll admit not my brightest moment I used k5 pro on the gpu die which resulted in reduced performance.

I'm using the Artic Silver thermal paste on the GPU die and Thermal Cooling Pads for the VRAM.

Could the "GPU power limit reach" warning be actually masking a temperature problem?

 

[ChrisCaro]

I'm using the Artic Silver thermal paste on the GPU die and Thermal Cooling Pads for the VRAM.

Could the "GPU power limit reach" warning be actually masking a temperature problem?

Could be!

Are you using the 3 pipe heat sink?

Also, do you use macsfancontrol to max your fan?

 

[B0URNE]

Could be!

Are you using the 3 pipe heat sink?

Also, do you use macsfancontrol to max your fan?

2 PIPE heatsink 21.5" imac 2011.

GPU Fan control using ODD Fan and sensor on heat pipe.

It's definitely puzzling because the GPU throttling can occur from 45C onwards which is far below max temp.

The other curiosity is that if I underclock the GPU to say 350Hz it maintains around ~48C with no sawtooth clock throttling or at least not visible.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thank you @Ausdauersportler it was a good read.

I'll return the ODD black plastic housing back to help direct the flow towards the heatsink to improve thermal dissipation.

Hopefully the 770M integration within my setup isn't flawed and can continue.

Reading your latest post you experience the throttling in the middle of a medium load situation. I would think the SMC is working half way the avoiding over load of over heating. Since I am not the BIOS developer my understanding of the cooperation between kext (driver), SMC (system management controller) and vBIOS is limited to observation, never did any reverse engineering on that.

Using a 70W card with the 21.5 models has it‘s limits, @highvoltage12v wrote about this on the first post. I do not know the situation in your country regarding the used system pricing. Here it is definitively better to jump on a cheap GPU dead 27 inch system and use the MXM-B cards in such a models. The repair costs are the same (GPU, memory, SSD) and you get a nice shiny bright 27 inch display.

 

[Danwilderspin]

Not sure if the is for this thread or the big sur one so will ask on both - maybe @highvoltage12v is the person who an answer if no one else can?

I am running 11.3.1 with a patched k610m and OCLP.

Everything works great except I get no airplay at alll, no airplay audio devices dispelled and no video device i.e. Apple TV,,, what am I doing wrong here? I've looked high and low and find no answer

 

[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

This rom does not require the use of an external EDID parser or a separate graphics core-console stack module, but I’ve left them in there for now. It uses a built in EDID_override_Protocol, a UGA_protocol and GOP_protocol. The rom is based on a TianoCore EDK2 build which houses its own generic video driver. During bootup, the efiROM is responsible for video rendering before the control is seamlessly transferred off to a different handle, the macOS video drivers. This is known as pre-boot configuration.

Caveats post-install/Bugs:
-16bit resolution glitch of UGA_DRAW_PROTOCOL - temporary solution: activate a sleep cycle and return, this should now clear the issue.

warning: as stated previously these cards are based on a WSON flash package and therefore are much more difficult to recover from a bad flash. Please take precautions and verify flashing.


In the words of Steve Jobs, “this is insanely great!”

files:
K4100M_BR.rom - stable with mem:2000Mhz, TDP:862Mhz
K4100M_UGA.rom - overclocked with mem: 2200Mhz, TDP: 967Mhz

******
UPDATE
******
09 02 2021: working on Catalina 10.15.7
07 02 2021: tested stability @2200Mhz & 967Mhz, thank you @Ri7 for testing, K4100M_UGA
09 08 2020: working on BigSur!
11 11 2020: working on High Sierra 10.13.6, security update 2020-006
24 09 2020: working on High Sierra 10.13.6, security update 2020-005
21 07 2020: working on Mojave 10.14.6, security update 2020-004 (18G6020)
20 07 2020: working on High Sierra 10.13.6, security update 2020-004
20 07 2020: working on Catalina 10.15.4
20 07 2020: working on Catalina 10.15.6 + kext mods

good evening. put such a card, the screen shines very weakly. I tried to do everything according to the instructions, Turn computer on, hold down Command (⌘) -R, an apple appears, the download starts and in this mode the computer hangs, do not enter recovery mode. What to do ?

 

[dksp]

Did you flash the Mac compatible ROM?