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

[Dilli]

Thanks to all who have worked on this project. I would greatly appreciate help in restoring internal speakers to provide sound. Installed OCLP, was able to have boot up and everything looks great except for sound. There is no listing of internal speakers just "Digital out". When I install a Belkin Thunderbolt 1 dock, I get a "USB Sound" output which I can hear sound from when connected to external speakers. I checked the connections 3 times and opened up the iMac and all looks connected and tight. Specifically verified 3 times the connection to LEFT/RIGHT Speaker on logic board is tight. The internal microphone is also working as is the bluetooth and have Big Sur up and running with native boot screen and backlight stepping also checks out well with OCLP. I have done a PVRM clear and went through the OCLP to verify all is patched.

System:
iMac 12,2 "sandy bridge" 3.4
16GB RAM
1TB SSD
NVIDIA K3100M

Your audio kext needs to be replaced or is missing.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thanks to all who have worked on this project. I would greatly appreciate help in restoring internal speakers to provide sound. Installed OCLP, was able to have boot up and everything looks great except for sound. There is no listing of internal speakers just "Digital out". When I install a Belkin Thunderbolt 1 dock, I get a "USB Sound" output which I can hear sound from when connected to external speakers. I checked the connections 3 times and opened up the iMac and all looks connected and tight. Specifically verified 3 times the connection to LEFT/RIGHT Speaker on logic board is tight. The internal microphone is also working as is the bluetooth and have Big Sur up and running with native boot screen and backlight stepping also checks out well with OCLP. I have done a PVRM clear and went through the OCLP to verify all is patched.

System:
iMac 12,2 "sandy bridge" 3.4
16GB RAM
1TB SSD
NVIDIA K3100M

Again, it could be more specific. Which OCLP version? Get the lastest OCLP version an check, again. Sound is and was working for months now. If not, check again and raise an issue on Github.

 

[georgeimac]

Thanks to all replies. I have OCLP 0.2.2. I don’t know how to check the sound kext. Can someone help me with checking and installing it? Thank you in advance. I have made an issue in GitHub, awaiting reply. Here is what I see in hardware under audio, with digital output vice internal speakers.

Built-in Microphone:
Default Input Device: Yes
Input Channels: 2
Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
Current SampleRate: 44100
Transport: Built-in
Input Source: Internal Microphone

Built-in Input:
Input Channels: 2
Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
Current SampleRate: 44100
Transport: Built-in
Input Source: Line In

Built-in Output:
Default Output Device: Yes
Default System Output Device: Yes
Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
Output Channels: 2
Current SampleRate: 44100
Transport: Built-in
Output Source: Digital Out

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thanks to all replies. I have OCLP 0.2.2. I don’t know how to check the sound kext. Can someone help me with checking and installing it? Thank you in advance. I have made an issue in GitHub, awaiting reply. Here is what I see in hardware under audio, with digital output vice internal speakers.

Built-in Microphone:
Default Input Device: Yes
Input Channels: 2
Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
Current SampleRate: 44100
Transport: Built-in
Input Source: Internal Microphone

Built-in Input:
Input Channels: 2
Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
Current SampleRate: 44100
Transport: Built-in
Input Source: Line In

Built-in Output:
Default Output Device: Yes
Default System Output Device: Yes
Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
Output Channels: 2
Current SampleRate: 44100
Transport: Built-in
Output Source: Digital Out

There is currently no known issue with the software stack of OCLP and there is no kernel extension to check or install. OCLP detects you system (iMac12,2) and configures OC automatically with the necessary settings (I use it myself on all systems listed below in my signature).

If you experience a malfunction (you experience it) the problem is likely only on your side. So please rerun OCLP and capture the output of the build process (it lists all the extensions added and features enabled). AppleALC will be installed and the correct configuration data added, post the output here using SPOILER tags and possible add the EFI folder zipped to cross check.

Before doing this please reboot using the newly configured EFI folder and check everything yourself, including the usage of former OCLP versions.

 

[Joey_PR]

Hey guys, just passing by and registered to say thanks. I was able to flash a k2000m with a CH341A Flasher and revive a clean 2011 27 inch i5 iMAC a neighbor discarded. Running Catalina for a couple of days now with no issues. I did have to de-solder the bios chip from the card, align and press it manually inside the SOIC8/SOP8 test clip for it to be read (didn't want to re-solder on the adapter). I then soldered it back to the card, installed, and awesomeness ensued. I initially could not SSH into the machine (and also had no 3rd led on board), so decided to go the bios flasher way. Worked. 👍

 

[idenis42]

** NVIDIA Quadro K5100M Mac Edition ROM **
Genuine Native Boot Screen & Brightness Control


​

View attachment 942192

I put together this UGA-based rom for the K5100M (N15E-Q5-A2):

• Does not require a 3rd party bootloader like OpenCore
• Needs modification of the AppleBacklight.kext [AppleIntelPanelA/ApplePanels/F10Ta007] brightness stepping
• Stock Quadro K5100M GPU clock/RAM speeds
• Full acceleration OpenCL

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

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.

Thanks to @ZenSurfeur for his very thorough testing and successful implementation. He is very pleased with the ROM and has done extensive tests.

"insanely Great!"
-Steve Jobs


View attachment 942216 View attachment 942217

View attachment 942218

**Update**
12-20-2020 - ROM adjusted to 1900Mhz vram and 810 Mhz TDP for better stability and windows 7/10 compatability

I purchased a k5100M 8 GB. The firmware is OK! I put the k5100m in the computer. Black screen. And the TV shows. I see "nikee22"on TV. But why is the imac 27 2011 black screen??? I tried the k2000m back-the imac works. The k5100m video card does not work - the screen is black. WHY? Is the firmware wrong?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

The screen is black. WHY? Is the firmware wrong?

The k5100m video card does not work.

 

[idenis42]

The k5100m video card does not work.

Do I need to purchase a new k5100m video card?

 

[Mark Meretz]

EDIT: 8/16/20 NEW AGC kexts have been added to change "board-id" to "board-ix" in the AppleGraphicsDevicePolicy binary. This has the same affect as "agdpmod=pikera" from Whatevergreen, this upload is for AMD users.

"instant on" K3100m/k4100m/k5100m/780m etc cards need this kext to fix DisplayPort Output.

I'm uploading a patched AppleGrapahicsControl.kext that is now necessary as of 10.15.4, the symptoms after this update are a blank screen but system sounds are heard when holding down the Escape key, as well a loss of any Displayport output. The cause of this is Apple Clamping down on 3rd party kexts from loading, this mainly affects hackintosh users, but affects us as our iMacs are no longer a supported platform.

What does this patched AppleGraphicsControl.kext do to allow 2009-2011 iMacs to properly boot? We now need our board ID's to be added to the AppleGraphicsDevicePolicy.kext within AppleGraphicsControl.kext, this allows the kext to properly load on boot, before this wasn't necessarily needed. I have so far all known 5 board ID's that are supported on our thread.

iMac12,2	(27-inch Mid 2011)	Mac-942B59F58194171B
iMac12,1	(21.5-inch Mid 2011)	Mac-942B5BF58194151B
iMac11,3	(27-inch Mid 2010)	Mac-F2238BAE
iMac11,2	(21.5-inch Mid 2010)	Mac-F2238AC8
iMac11,1	(27-inch Late 2009)	Mac-F2268DAE

Thanks to @Ausdauersportler for the helping/testing for this kext.

How to install when your iMac boots with a Blank screen? (assuming your LCD works just fine)

When booting you need to Hold Alt/Option to bring up the AppleBootPicker, then select the Catalina partition. Since the iMac's Screen is already on when using AppleBootPicker the iMacs screen will remain on the entire boot process allowing you to log in and then proceed to install the Patched AppleGraphicsControl Kext.

To install this kext
1. unlock your System partition, open terminal enter

sudo mount -uw /
killall Finder

2. drag the kext on-top of the kext utility icon let it install/timeout with an error.

3. Open terminal and enter "sudo reboot" skipping this step may leave your iMac hanging at the desktop (A Catalina issue)


Make sure to unzip the kext to a new folder, so there aren't any "1" or "2"... at the end of the AppleGraphicsControl.kext filename. Remember the is replacing the System Kext in System/Library/Extensions and must be done using Kext Utility linked here http://cvad-mac.narod.ru/index/0-4.

Is this also available for Big Sur now, without my second monitor. I'm still on Catalina ??

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Do I need to purchase a new k5100m video card?

You already have the working K2000m, why do you need to spend money on K5100m? What's the purpose of buying?

 

[ZenSurfeur]

I purchased a k5100M 8 GB. The firmware is OK! I put the k5100m in the computer. Black screen. And the TV shows. I see "nikee22"on TV. But why is the imac 27 2011 black screen??? I tried the k2000m back-the imac works. The k5100m video card does not work - the screen is black. WHY? Is the firmware wrong?
View attachment 1798728

Hello
I got this card and it works perfectly thx again to nikey22 for the magical vBios
first > you should write your config in your signature.
second > how did you flash the card?

 

[micmacmo]

It's time to upgrade macOS on my iMac. I'd like to ask your advice on how to do it.

I installed a k2100m GPU and used iMac OpenCore Loader to get brightness control. Over a couple weeks of occasional, casual use, it's been pretty stable. Otherwise, plain ol' High Sierra installed.

I'm trying to squeeze a few more secure, productive years of life from my iMac, so I'd like to upgrade.

At this point, I understand my options for macOS upgrades are dosdude1's macOS Catalina Patcher or OCLP. I've used Catalina Patcher on my MBP with great success, so I'm familiar with it and it seems rock solid. But it dead-ends at Catalina.

So some questions about OCLP:

• At the least, I'd like to install Catalina, because it should be able to run smoothly with a non-metal card. But I would like to test Big Sur. With that in mind, what's best practice here: install to unpartitioned main HD or create a separate partition?
• To test Big Sur once Catalina is installed, do I simply repeat the upgrade steps I used to get to Catalina? (Get macOS Full Installer, create bootable drive with installer, use OCLP to build and Install OpenCore to the drive, etc.)
• If I decide to downgrade from Big Sur to Catalina, are the downgrade steps the same as the upgrade steps?

Thanks for any advice offered!

 

[mdgm]

OCLP doesn't officially support Catalina. There is a branch with some limited support for it but its intended for developers. However with a metal GPU no root patching should be needed, I think.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

It's time to upgrade macOS on my iMac. I'd like to ask your advice on how to do it.

I installed a k2100m GPU and used iMac OpenCore Loader to get brightness control. Over a couple weeks of occasional, casual use, it's been pretty stable. Otherwise, plain ol' High Sierra installed.

I'm trying to squeeze a few more secure, productive years of life from my iMac, so I'd like to upgrade.

At this point, I understand my options for macOS upgrades are dosdude1's macOS Catalina Patcher or OCLP. I've used Catalina Patcher on my MBP with great success, so I'm familiar with it and it seems rock solid. But it dead-ends at Catalina.

So some questions about OCLP:

• At the least, I'd like to install Catalina, because it should be able to run smoothly with a non-metal card. But I would like to test Big Sur. With that in mind, what's best practice here: install to unpartitioned main HD or create a separate partition?
• To test Big Sur once Catalina is installed, do I simply repeat the upgrade steps I used to get to Catalina? (Get macOS Full Installer, create bootable drive with installer, use OCLP to build and Install OpenCore to the drive, etc.)
• If I decide to downgrade from Big Sur to Catalina, are the downgrade steps the same as the upgrade steps?

Thanks for any advice offered!

My advices is simple:

Read the first post about your upgrade options, read the OCLP documentation and remember that there was never a way to downgrade other than a clean installation with backup and restore.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

OCLP doesn't officially support Catalina. There is a branch with some limited support for it but its intended for developers. However with a metal GPU no root patching should be needed, I think.

Please check the first post of this thread. OCLP works beautifully with metal GPU upgraded iMacs and no one needs to feel the pain of a manually post patched @dosdude1 patched macOS.

Unless you want the HD3000 QuickSync feature on the 2011 there is absolutely no reason to use the @dosdude1 patcher, again.

 

[mdgm]

Oh O.K. So it's fine if you have an upgraded graphics card, it's just the non-metal card usage that's not supported?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Oh O.K. So it's fine if you have an upgraded graphics card, it's just the non-metal card usage that's not supported?

None of both is supported by the development team, but it works for metal upgraded iMacs. It does not apply any legacy video patches - and we do not need it. The name and topic of this thread is the metal GPU upgrade.

In fact I did the programming to support the iMac11,x and iMac12,x on OCLP - during this we figured out in a smaller group that upgrading these iMacs with a metal GPU makes them more compatible with all Mojave and later macOS versions than the MacPro 2008/2009 systems. Huge gain, unless you use a NVIDIA Kepler GPU want the SandyBridge iGPU and QuickSync working. I am starting to rewrite the first post.

AMD metal GPU owners do not need QuickSync!

 

[idenis42]

Hello
I got this card and it works perfectly thx again to nikey22 for the magical vBios
first > you should write your config in your signature.
second > how did you flash the card?

Hello
I got this card and it works perfectly thx again to nikey22 for the magical vBios
first > you should write your config in your signature.
second > how did you flash the card?

Hello.
The programmator.
Reading and checking the firmware - ok

 

[ZenSurfeur]

Hello.
The programmator.
Reading and checking the firmware - ok

The Best choice is using the @xanderon method (usb stick via SSH) you should try this

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hello.
The programmator.
Reading and checking the firmware - ok

Search first post for black screen issue.

 

[ChrizLoud]

** 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

Still no fix for the color-bug? So tired of putting my iMac to sleep after boot that im thinking of installing my HD6970M again

 

[passatgt]

Still no fix for the color-bug? So tired of putting my iMac to sleep after boot that im thinking of installing my HD6970M again

2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade

I made a small app that fixes the color-depth issue at startup for some cards, like the 780M with @nikey22's ROM. After startup, start this app, the screen should turn black for a second and the colors/performance should be good to go. Appears to be working fine for me but obviously needs some...

forums.macrumors.com

You don't even need to add it to startup items, just run it once and it will remember the setting until you change resolution manually.

 

[jay508]

Hello everyone,

I've been reworking the K3100M ROM and the related blackscreen issue/boot loop issue that some of you have been dealing with. As @Ausdauersportler mentioned, it could be related to an interaction between the bootrom and the efi driver. Apple added a security update, 2020-005 and then 2020-006 which could be breaking some compatibility at least in the IM12,2 (2011) generation, although they kept the same bootrom version after the 2020-006 update:
Bootrom: 87.0.0.0.0
SMC version: 1.72f2

I'm currently running my modded rom in a test machine (iMac 27", 2011, High Sierra 10.13.6)
It is working well, no black screen upon driver initialization now and login screen should be present upon reboots.
It survives a PRAM reset as well
I added this line to the AppleGraphicsDevicePolicy.kext under the ConfigMap key:

<key>Mac-942B59F58194171B</key>
<string>none</string>

but I'm not sure it is necessary for High Sierra.

Anyhow, the results are very encouraging:
View attachment 1748221
If a few others who own a K3100M could test the ROM out on a 2011 machine (or other machines), I'd appreciate the feedback. As far as I can tell, it should work well with the -BFR and/or -AFR variants, but I could be wrong. I'll update the main K3100M rom page with the new ROM to keep our iMacs working "insanely great!"
Enjoy!

**update**
4-22-2021 - [K3100M_V4.rom] Updated rom to allow for Elpida memory to be used.

Hi @niky22 K3100m tested several versions of VBiOS in iMac 27 2010 2011 models using Windows7 Windows10 tested multiple versions of graphics drivers will enter the system black screen repeatedly multiple shutdowns reboots sometimes and can correctly enter the desktop normal graphics card, not install the graphics driver will not black screen. How to deal with this, please.

 

[Ed Hartouni]

well that was pretty awesome... just loaded Big Sur 11.4 using OCLP and so far so good...
...necessitated by the failure of the GPU on my old 24" early 2008 iMac (but replacement GPUs are on the way, hopefully one of them will work!).

pretty stoked so far... see if the intermittent failure happens, I have a contingency for that too (my first K1100M installation failed possibly because it predated the Elpida based GPU ROM1 bios... if this installation is funky I'll re-burn that GPU and see if it works).

thanks for all the hard work all around.

 

[FlorisVN]

I have revently had some time to test your package on our Mojave 2011 iMac's, and must say it works great !
I would like to mention that this kext fix, also fixes the no iMac speaker sound fix.
Dosdude1's Mojave patcher wont let me enable built in sound en Mic anymore with Mojave, dont know exactly what causes this but I think it's related to the upgrade to nvidia cards.

Anyway, if anybody wants to know, this package also fixes the sound/mic again

Many thx again for these awesome package installers

hmm strange, recently updated one of our 2011 iMac's today, still runing Mojave using dosdude1 patcher.
But I cannot get Audio to work anymore, after updating to the latest mojave security update.

I have postponed this security update for a few months, since this iMac is in production use all the time..
Anyway, I so far cannot get the internal iMac speakers to work again under MacOS.

This problem was solved for me in the post by running the great iMac 2011 sleep patch pkg installer.
Everything else is fixed again greatly with the pkg, like HD3000,sleep backscreen but still internal imac sound speakers are not working.

The only sound device currently listed again is Soundflower (2ch)

This iMac runs a GTX765m with Nicks vbios, and Mojave 10.14.6 using dosdude1 patcher.
(yes I know, I will get all of the iMac's to OCLP in the future.. )

Perhaps I have overlooked this info within the Wiki, but will look for a solution again.
Or perhaps somebody can point me here to the right direction, thanks in advance..