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

[Danykeit]

guys, good morning!

I installed Macos Big Sur with OpenCore. But when installing the Post-Install Volume Patch, the error appears: "SecureBootModel set incorrectly, unable to patch!
Please disable SecureBootModel in Patcher Settings ".. I tried to disable it through the patch but I can't, does anyone know how to solve it?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

guys, good morning!

I installed Macos Big Sur with OpenCore. But when installing the Post-Install Volume Patch, the error appears: "SecureBootModel set incorrectly, unable to patch!
Please disable SecureBootModel in Patcher Settings ".. I tried to disable it through the patch but I can't, does anyone know how to solve it?

You simply do not need the post volume patches. Check the support list carefully, again!

EDIT: At least you found the most easy way to get a reliable working OpenCore version for your GPU on your own

 

[Danykeit]

You simply do not need the post volume patches. Check the support list carefully, again!

EDIT: At least you found the most easy way to get a reliable working OpenCore version for your GPU on your own

Thank you my friend! And when the update comes out, don't you need post-volume patches? Thank you very much for the tips, you were fundamental !!! is running really well on Mac Os Big sur!

 

[Danykeit]

You simply do not need the post volume patches. Check the support list carefully, again!

EDIT: At least you found the most easy way to get a reliable working OpenCore version for your GPU on your own

One last question, trying to install post-volume patches, I ended up disabling SIP, do you think it's better to leave it disabled or enabled?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

One last question, trying to install post-volume patches, I ended up disabling SIP, do you think it's better to leave it disabled or enabled?

Enable SIP and SMB unless you have a very good reason to disable it.

Just re-create the OC config using the standard values.

 

[Danykeit]

Enable SIP and SMB unless you have a very good reason to disable it.

Just re-create the OC config using the standard values.

Sorry for my ignorance, but how do I recreate the OC configuration using the default values?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Sorry for my ignorance, but how do I recreate the OC configuration using the default values?

I wonder how you managed to disable SIP in the first place. You must have selected a special setting within the OCLP app to achieve this. Normally SIP and SMB are enabled.

Startup the OCLP patcher app again, do not modify or select any of the options (this makes it the default config), create the EFI and let it install on the very same SDD/HDD where your current.

Honestly I am not quite sure if are serious with your question! What does default mean to you?

 

[Klineex]

Here’s more photos of the iMac9,1 24-inch Early 2009 with a Metal Quadro K3000M, the optical drive fan connector with a spliced cable is powering the lvds controller board for the internal display, and the DisplayPort cable connected to that goes out through the memory door area to the Mini DisplayPort port in the back so the iMac basically runs the internal screen and since the lvds controller board needs its own 12V, the ODD fan connector’s power is perfect for that and the ODD fan is useless in the 24-inch iMac anyway (CPU fan cools both GPU and CPU) so still one power cord and a true all in one and I ended up not using opencore as without boot screen support, the apple HDA kext (for audio support) doesn’t work, so I used dosdude’s APFS rom patcher and berrykn’s Big Sur patcher (since I already have a metal gpu) and it auto blind boots perfectly and all is good!

power supply is still powering the lcd inverter like usual for the 24V the backlights require, and just the backlight on signal and brightness control wire were spliced and switched to be connected to the lvds controller board

 

[Mesh_Hun]

I have an rx460 mxm card,. Can it flash wx4150's rom and work normally?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I have an rx460 mxm card,. Can it flash wx4150's rom and work normally?

Depending on the memory size you will either need the 2 or 4 GB version to flash. It should work.

 

[internetzel]

I have an rx460 mxm card,. Can it flash wx4150's rom and work normally?

You should verify whether the memory chips of your board are supported by the VBIOS rom images. You can use PolarisBiosEditor to see the supported memory types of a specific VBIOS.

 

[mitesh33]

Hi All,

I’ve successfully fitted the green Dell WX4130 2GB, and works flawlessly. I’m running Big Sur via OpenCore Legacy Patcher on my iMac is 11,1 late 2009 27inch i7 2.8GHz.

Just wanted thanks everyone who helped and also those who made it possible with the creating the custom ROMs and all the great information on this thread, I know a lot of effort must of gone into it.

Some tips for anyone fitting this :
- without OpenCore Legacy Patcher you’ll get black screen, so make sure you have this ready on usb stick/sd card before you do the swap and test
- re-use old GPU xclamp
- flash using the Linux Method and disconnect all internal sata drives and external usb drives and only boot with Linux USB inserted
- you’ll need to do PRAM reset or for some reason it won’t boot into Linux to find the IP
- no mods are needed to be done on the heatsink
- use a 1mm thick (15mm X 15mm) copper shim in between the GPU die and heatsink, otherwise it will overheat
- use a good amount of K5-Pro paste for the vram chips and 2 grey capacitors
- use thermal paste of both sides of the copper shim
- I’ve used Kapton Tape as shown, however it is not required if you use the shim size above (so ignore that)

Here are some pictures of the install

many thanks again all

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi All,

I’ve successfully fitted the green Dell WX4130 2GB, and works flawlessly. I’ve running Big Sur via OpenCore Legacy Patcher on my iMac is 11,1 late 2009 27inch i7 2.8GHz.

Just wanted thanks everyone who helped and also those who made it possible with the creating the custom ROMs and all the great information on this thread, I know a lot of effort must of gone into it.

Some tips for anyone fitting this :
- use kapton tape as I’ve done to avoid any shorts with the heatsink
- without OpenCore Legacy Patcher you’ll get black screen, so make sure you have this ready on usb stick/sd card before you do the swap and test
- re-use old GPU xclamp
- flash using the Linux Method
- you’ll need to do PRAM reset or for some reason it won’t boot into Linux to find the IP
- no mods are needed to be done on the heatsink
- use a 1mm thick (15mm X 15mm) copper sheet in between the GPU die and heatsink, otherwise it will overheat

Here are some pictures of the install
View attachment 1783899
View attachment 1783900
View attachment 1783901
View attachment 1783902
View attachment 1783903
View attachment 1783909
many thanks again all

Great so see another AMD GPU running!

If you already use a copper plate to

i) secure the contact of GPU and copper part and

ii) maintain the distance of cards components from the sink to avoid shorts

you do not need the kapton tape at all. This is really some kind of folklore made up by guys trying to avoid the copper plate method in the first place and ended with doing or better trying this packaging trick. I made this copper plate post, did several WX3140/WX4150 installations and never needed any tape.

If your copper plate is too thin (less than 0.5 mm) you may have components of the card getting into contact with the sink and need at some places small pieces of tape to isolate. A visual inspection will show where.

EDIT:
Another important thing is re-using the smaller apple x-bracket with the AMD MXM-A or NVIDIA MXM-B cards. This avoids a lot of trouble an work. Actually I never tried to modify the bigger X-bracket as shown on the first post. This is another older story only valid for guys having no other x-bracket available.

 

[mitesh33]

Great so see another AMD GPU running!

If you already use a copper plate to

i) secure the contact of GPU and copper part and

ii) maintain the distance of cards compnents from the sink to avoid shorts

you do not need the kapton tape at all. This is really some kind of folklore made up by guys trying to avoid the copper plate method in the first place and ended with doing or better trying this packaging trick. I made this copper plate post, did several WX3140/WX4150 installations and never needed any tape.

If you copper plate is too thin (less than 0.5 mm) you may have components of the card getting into contact with the sink and need at some places small pieces of tape to isolate. A visual inspection will show where.

That’s good to know, yes I think I read this on couple of threads about the Kapton tape and got worried about shorts, that does make sense once the copper shim is used then the board won’t touch the heatsink. I’ve edited my post so others don’t use it if they’re using the right size copper shim.

Now I’m debating if I should do the AirPort upgrade as I use Ethernet anyway but would like airdrop to work also maybe do the USB 3.0 mod

cheers

 

[trawkinss]

Hello. I'm looking for a iMac 2011 27 inch card, preferably in Germany. someone’s something ?
I greet everyone for a piece of good work.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I'm in a dilemma now. After resoldering the mosfet 2N7002k, the internal LCD worked again. However,
Machine: iMac 27" late 2009
Replaced GPU: K1100m
OS: High Sierra
Case 1: Default OS, no Opencore or patch
=> Full brightness, uncontrollable
Case 2: OC loader SD card (with AppleBacklightFixup.kext by nickey22 in post #8044)
=> max brightness drop significantly, but controllable. The issue is the max level is still lower than the level I want to use.
Case 3: OCLP
=> Same as case 1. Full brightness, uncontrollable

So I'm stuck with 2 scenarios: Controllable brightness but very low, or uncontrollable brightness and too bright to use.

I will try installing Big Sur to see if the new OS can improve brightness and control.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I'm in a dilemma now. After resoldering the mosfet 2N7002k, the internal LCD worked again. However,
Machine: iMac 27" late 2009
Replaced GPU: K1100m
OS: High Sierra
Case 1: Default OS, no Opencore or patch
=> Full brightness, uncontrollable
Case 2: OC loader SD card (with AppleBacklightFixup.kext by nickey22 in post #8044)
=> max brightness drop significantly, but controllable. The issue is the max level is still lower than the level I want to use.
Case 3: OCLP
=> Same as case 1. Full brightness, uncontrollable

So I'm stuck with 2 scenarios: Controllable brightness but very low, or uncontrollable brightness and too bright to use.

I will try installing Big Sur to see if the new OS can improve brightness and control.

Get an older OCLP versions (0.0.22), copy the recent version of AppleBacklighFixup.kext from there and replace it on your OC loader. The maximum brightness will not be the same as with the original card and definitely lower than the uncontrollable case (there is no limitation in place at all and you burn and 100%).

Recently OCLP moved the changes needed from the AppleBacklighFixup.kext to a setting within the DeviceProperties section. You need to generate the OC with the OCLP on the very same machine to get the GPU auto detection working.

EDIT: You cannot use the same OC with AMD and NVIDIA cards on the same machine.

If you did this already you hit possible a bug introduced in the recent OCLP version (which one you are using?) and should open an issue on GitHub.

The brightness controll and the level is managed by OpenCore and Applebacklightfixup - not Big Sur or a particular macOS version. It should by the same using a limited lumen/lux measuring system (iPhone using a fitting app can be one).

 

[passatgt]

awesome work but since they are 0K resistors (essentialy jumpers) u cloud just solder a thin wire across

I guess just a solder blob would work too?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Get an older OCLP versions (0.0.22), copy the recent version of AppleBacklighFixup.kext from there and replace it on your OC loader. The maximum brightness will not be the same as with the original card and definitely lower than the uncontrollable case (there is no limitation in place at all and you burn and 100%).

Recently OCLP moved the changes needed from the AppleBacklighFixup.kext to a setting within the DeviceProperties section. You need to generate the OC with the OCLP on the very same machine to get the GPU auto detection working.

EDIT: You cannot use the same OC with AMD and NVIDIA cards on the same machine.

If you did this already you hit possible a bug introduced in the recent OCLP version (which one you are using?) and should open an issue on GitHub.

The brightness controll and the level is managed by OpenCore and Applebacklightfixup - not Big Sur or a particular macOS version. It should by the same using a limited lumen/lux measuring system (iPhone using a fitting app can be one).

Yes, I know how to change the config.plist of the OC Loader image for each type of GPU installed =
For OCLP, I always create a new EFI on an SD card for a new configuration, to avoid wrong GPU error.
But I still use the v0.1.1 OCLP.
I'll try the 0.1.5 to see if it improves the backlight issue.

Update:

OCLP v0.1.5 took too long to build the EFI.
I used the OCLP 0.1.2 and it worked beautifully. Thank you.

 

[dfranetic]

I guess just a solder blob would work too?

I would discourage both of these alternatives (jumper wire or a solder blob). A solder blob over 1206-spaced solder pads would require a fair amount of solder (if one manages to make one). A thin solid wire cut to precise length would do, but is probably harder to properly solder in place than a 1206-sized jumper. I'll stick with recommending a 1206 0R resistor/jumper.

 

[RTouris]

Can i ask if the copper plate between the GPU and the heatsink is a suggestion only for the AMD WX41x0s as discussed here or is it a good-practise advise for all the GPUs covered in p.1?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Can i ask if the copper plate between the GPU and the heatsink is a suggestion only for the AMD WX41x0s as discussed here or is it a good-practise advise for all the GPUs covered in p.1?

Only WX4130/WX4150 and sometimes if you transplant an original MXM-A ATI like the 4670 onto an MXM-B sink. All other cards to not need such special installation! It is a matter of making contact between GPU and sink and avoiding contact of all other components and the sink at the same time.

For that reason we have added it to the tables on the first post and called in special, not regular.

 

[RTouris]

Only WX4130/WX4150 and sometimes if you transplant an original MXM-A ATI like the 4670 onto an MXM-B sink. All other cards to not need such special installation! It is a matter of making contact between GPU and sink and avoiding contact of all other components and the sink at the same time.

For that reason we have added it to the tables on the first post and called in special, not regular.

Many thanks for the swift reply. How about the use of K5-pro instead of thermal pads on memory chips, I see there's huge preference of using the paste over the pads, has this been cross-justified with tests where the paste was proven to equal or exceed the pads' performance?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Many thanks for the swift reply. How about the use of K5-pro instead of thermal pads on memory chips, I see there's huge preference of using the paste over the pads, has this been cross-justified with tests where the paste was proven to equal or exceed the pads' performance?

Come on, search through the thread if you doubt. Doubt without reason is...

 

[draskostar]

Nobody has done this before to my knowledge. Save your vBIOS and give it a try. But please do not hijack this Apple iMac thread with a long off topic discussion.

You are welcome to use any technology published here and you can start a separate new thread about your Hackintosh.

Thank you for understanding. I would do this but I am not quite sure If this is safe job to do or I can ruin my pc/dgpu. Is there any hardware modifications that I have to do with my dgpu before or I can just flash dgpu’s custom bios and hope it will do what I look for?