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

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The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
FlorisVN said:
small update,

My audio problem is solved again :)

Used dosdude1 patch updater, and reinstalled the legacy audio patch again, audio working great again :)
Click to expand...
I had to do the same after applying Mojave updates to our late 2009 iMac. The patcher didn't detect that the patch needed to be reapplied.
Since then I switched to OCLP and got rid of needing to (re-)apply those patches - still running Mojave but will update to Catalina once Mojave is out of support.
 
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Hi All,
I would like to thank you all in this forum who made this happen. I succeed install @nikey22 rom in GPU NVidia Quadro k2000m using linux method, then after install OCLP, I can use brightness control again in my previous High Sierra OS.

best regard,

nikey22 said:
View attachment 1775541


The following is a rom for brightness control for the people who own a K2000M card.
You will still need to use Opencore to do the necessary ACPI injections.
Appreciate @BadBiscuit for doing the initial testing and confirmation. His hardware and OS support is below.

Vram support:
Hynix H5TQ2G63DFR (tested)

Bootloader/OS support:
OCLP v.0.1.2, BigSur 11.3.1 (tested)

Machine support:
iMac 12,1 ( 21.5-inch Mid 2011) Mac-942B5BF58194151B (tested)
iMac 11,2 ( 21.5-inch Mid 2010) Mac-F2238AC8
iMac 11,1 (27-inch Late 2009) Mac-F2268DAE
iMac 11,3 (27-inch Mid 2010) Mac- F2238BAE
iMac12,2 (27-inch Mid 2011) Mac-942B59F58194171B

Again, now that @Ausdauersportler and the others are working to refine OCLP to our generation iMacs, these cards should be more easily compatible. Much appreciation for that. A reminder, they are not for power users because of their DDR3 ram and clock limitations. Enjoy!

Insanely Great!
-Steve Jobs
Click to expand...
 

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MichaelDT said:
THIS external POST helps describes the flashing process. Others have found THIS POST useful.
Click to expand...
I wanted to share another great tool used for flashing these chips.
The Raspberry Pi 3 or higher and the newest Raspberry Pi OS already have flashrom installed along with the drivers for the ch341a programmer. Just as in Linux, you open the terminal on your Raspberry and type in the commands to run flashrom. If you have a Raspberry Pi sitting around, it is much easier than USB tools or loading Linux onto another computer. I had issues with the Linux USB method and Windows software. I tried to flash a simple Winbond w25x20 for several days before I decided to give the Raspberry a try. For me, the Raspberry was much simpler to figure out.
The command lines are also simple- sudo flashrom --programmer ch341a_spi -r backup.bin
I do know that Linux uses the same command lines but the hassle of trying to create Linux USBs and find a program that actually worked in Windows was the deciding factor for me. Being a fan of Windows systems for many years has created a type of mental block when it comes to working with Linux, for me.
Has anyone else used a Raspberry?
 
cabinfourus said:
I wanted to share another great tool used for flashing these chips.
The Raspberry Pi 3 or higher and the newest Raspberry Pi OS already have flashrom installed along with the drivers for the ch341a programmer. Just as in Linux, you open the terminal on your Raspberry and type in the commands to run flashrom. If you have a Raspberry Pi sitting around, it is much easier than USB tools or loading Linux onto another computer. I had issues with the Linux USB method and Windows software. I tried to flash a simple Winbond w25x20 for several days before I decided to give the Raspberry a try. For me, the Raspberry was much simpler to figure out.
The command lines are also simple- sudo flashrom --programmer ch341a_spi -r backup.bin
I do know that Linux uses the same command lines but the hassle of trying to create Linux USBs and find a program that actually worked in Windows was the deciding factor for me. Being a fan of Windows systems for many years has created a type of mental block when it comes to working with Linux, for me.
Has anyone else used a Raspberry?
Click to expand...
No, but I used flashrom directly on the Mac :) I am quite sure is it part of the FAQ….
 
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liquidtwitch said:
This post is now out of date, please refer to the first post in this thread for up-to-date info



Complete guide on how to flash your iMac's boot rom and 765m/770m/780m gpu in order to get boot screen and the cards working with both MacOs and Windows:

Please others chime in if I'm incorrect with any of this.

This assumes you either already have Windows installed, or you have the ability to install Windows.
Some of this is how I would go about doing it, as with most things there's other ways and it pretty much comes down to what you're comfortable with.

Edit: updated with correct version of UEFITool



This post is now out of date, please refer to the first post in this thread for up-to-date info
Click to expand...
I have been able to read my chips bin but am not able to upload the new file to the chip. I am using a Raspberry Pi with the ch341a programmer. The problem I am having is flashrom can't find the file. I downloaded the file directly to my Pi's downloads folder and unzipped them. I tried moving the files to the Pi's directory. Any ideas? Where does flashrom look for the file? store the file?
 
cabinfourus said:
I have been able to read my chips bin but am not able to upload the new file to the chip. I am using a Raspberry Pi with the ch341a programmer. The problem I am having is flashrom can't find the file. I downloaded the file directly to my Pi's downloads folder and unzipped them. I tried moving the files to the Pi's directory. Any ideas? Where does flashrom look for the file? store the file?
Click to expand...

Normally, we use the ch341a programmer with its GUI application on Windows, with a mouse to select the files.
Xanderon made the GRML USB because he hates Windows.
Later on, 99% of the readers of this thread found that the GRML USB is the most convenient solution with detailed instruction to use. You can even use your Raspberry Pi to SSH to the iMac booted from GRML USB to command-flash, perhaps you can even use your smart phone to SSH to the iMac to command-flash, saving the need to have another machine.
 
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Either put your rom file in the same directory as the flashrom binary, or use the full path to the rom file when entering the command.
 
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I need help. I'm on a 2009 iMac 27-inch, i7. I installed an NVIDIA 780M flashed with nickey's BR3 BIOS.
I also installed OCLP and modified the boot-args to fix the blackout.

My problem: I can't get the thing to boot in bootcamp windows. In the startup volume picker (option key on boot), bootcamp partition shows up. But if I select it, the computer freezes immediately. What could be causing such issues?

for some reference, I installed windows onto the bootcamp partition through the VirtualBox hack. (map the physical disk to a VM hdd image, and install windows within VirtualBox.)
 
yjchoi17 said:
I need help. I'm on a 2009 iMac 27-inch, i7. I installed an NVIDIA 780M flashed with nickey's BR3 BIOS.
I also installed OCLP and modified the boot-args to fix the blackout.

My problem: I can't get the thing to boot in bootcamp windows. In the startup volume picker (option key on boot), bootcamp partition shows up. But if I select it, the computer freezes immediately. What could be causing such issues?

for some reference, I installed windows onto the bootcamp partition through the VirtualBox hack. (map the physical disk to a VM hdd image, and install windows within VirtualBox.)
Click to expand...
Hi!

First there is no hack needed to fix the black screen issue with recent versions of OCLP - it is already included. So whatever you believe to have achieved, revert back to the stock settings. I am not willing to discuss self configured settings here.

Secondly: The online OCLP docs are pretty clear about Windows and OpenCore - simply use an UEFI installation. So please install Windows again following the docs without any VirtualBox hacks.
 
yjchoi17 said:
I need help. I'm on a 2009 iMac 27-inch, i7. I installed an NVIDIA 780M flashed with nickey's BR3 BIOS.
I also installed OCLP and modified the boot-args to fix the blackout.

My problem: I can't get the thing to boot in bootcamp windows. In the startup volume picker (option key on boot), bootcamp partition shows up. But if I select it, the computer freezes immediately. What could be causing such issues?

for some reference, I installed windows onto the bootcamp partition through the VirtualBox hack. (map the physical disk to a VM hdd image, and install windows within VirtualBox.)
Click to expand...

Install Windows on a PC, then move the SSD over to the iMacs.
You have 3 SATA ports on the logic board.

I'm running Windows inside an USB enclosure on my iMac 2010.
OCLP can see it and I can select it from the boot menu.
Just extend the waiting time of OCLP boot menu (the default 5s is too short in my case).
 
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Apologies if it's been covered before, how well would an R9 M290X work? I'd think it wouldn't be too difficult considering they're natively supported under macOS, what's the driver situation though? TDM? Brightness? Would one from an Alienware 17 R1 work?
 
intel_inside_or_not said:
Apologies if it's been covered before, how well would an R9 M290X work? I'd think it wouldn't be too difficult considering they're natively supported under macOS, what's the driver situation though? TDM? Brightness? Would one from an Alienware 17 R1 work?
Click to expand...
No vBIOS available. With a little bit luck the stock BIOS might work. Since those cards do not offer VideoToolBox support I see no gain to use them. Try to get one of the listed AMD cards on post #1 - just in case you missed to read it.

EDIT:
From a mid term support view these cards will be better than the Nvidia Kepler cards. We all expect to see Kepler support ripped from the next macOS release. If you still have/own such a card one could start a project. But as I wrote before, it would be better to go with the Polaris cards listed on post #1.
 
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Hey guys,

I have some strange things to report.
shortly my history:
i have an 2011 imac with an 880M with the nikely rom installed. All worked very fine on high sierra.
Since half a year i am on catalina and worked just fine too.

I moved to a new place today. Wanted to strart my imac and i my memory modules crashed (2 times beep tone, no sceern at all) I had to remove all modules and since then only one worked. All differnet modules and orders i tryed didin't change something. Only one module is working since then.

So really strange, just for your information. I know that it's not possible to give specializet hardware help for anybody here.

Have a good one and again thnak you all very much for this great thread here.
 
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WX7100 vBIOS

Some months ago I got finally a WX7100 working in my 2011 systems. @Nick [D]vB posted several versions of vBIOS for the AMD cards, the latest packages was called AMD_GOP. We figured out later (more than a year ago) that all vBIOS versions from this package have a nasty problem properly boosting either the GPU core or the VRAM (and doing this in a different way directly after the startup and after the first sleep).

Today I found out more by chance that the last vBIOS named 580X_GOP.ROM from the AMD_Beta4 package does not have this problem. It works pretty impressive natively on High Sierra (posted an new all time record with more than 72.1 FPS / 3015 Score) and using OCLP 0.2.2 with Big Sur and Monterey still delivering results around 65 FPS / 2700 Score.

Other users owning such a precious card may test this vBIOS and report back!

BTW: I am not using any PolarisBoost or RadeonBoost extension.

Edit: Just found out that the Beta4 vBIOS mentioned above needs with High Sierra only an external display to switch on the internal LCD after macOS startup. Nick mentioned this in his post.
 
Last edited:
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kesseljunge said:
Hey guys,

I have some strange things to report.
shortly my history:
i have an 2011 imac with an 880M with the nikely rom installed. All worked very fine on high sierra.
Since half a year i am on catalina and worked just fine too.

I moved to a new place today. Wanted to strart my imac and i my memory modules crashed (2 times beep tone, no sceern at all) I had to remove all modules and since then only one worked. All differnet modules and orders i tryed didin't change something. Only one module is working since then.

So really strange, just for your information. I know that it's not possible to give specializet hardware help for anybody here.

Have a good one and again thnak you all very much for this great thread here.
Click to expand...
You need to replace your memory module. Perhaps its a coincidence that the memory chip gave up. I had somewhat similar issue replaced a 4gb stick and all is good now.
 
intel_inside_or_not said:
Apologies if it's been covered before, how well would an R9 M290X work? I'd think it wouldn't be too difficult considering they're natively supported under macOS, what's the driver situation though? TDM? Brightness? Would one from an Alienware 17 R1 work?
Click to expand...

What's your situation?
- Already have the video card at hand? => Sell it and buy one on the compatible list on post #1.
- Come by a cheap offer? => Let it go.
- Just be curious to see if it work at all in your iMac? => Please do and report your result here. We are curious, too.
- Want to upgrade your current GPU at reasonable price? => K610m is the cheapest, but K3100m is quite reasonable to me.
- Want the most powerful card available? WX7100 is still available and not that expensive, if you are thinking of pairing an old system with a powerful card.
 
Nguyen Duc Hieu said:
Normally, we use the ch341a programmer with its GUI application on Windows, with a mouse to select the files.
Xanderon made the GRML USB because he hates Windows.
Later on, 99% of the readers of this thread found that the GRML USB is the most convenient solution with detailed instruction to use. You can even use your Raspberry Pi to SSH to the iMac booted from GRML USB to command-flash, perhaps you can even use your smart phone to SSH to the iMac to command-flash, saving the need to have another machine.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. I found my problem. I renamed the file so flashrom would find it.
 
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Nguyen Duc Hieu said:
What's your situation?
- Already have the video card at hand? => Sell it and buy one on the compatible list on post #1.
- Come by a cheap offer? => Let it go.
- Just be curious to see if it work at all in your iMac? => Please do and report your result here. We are curious, too.
- Want to upgrade your current GPU at reasonable price? => K610m is the cheapest, but K3100m is quite reasonable to me.
- Want the most powerful card available? WX7100 is still available and not that expensive, if you are thinking of pairing an old system with a powerful card.
Click to expand...
MXM cards are ridiculously difficult to locate here in Australia without dealing with international shipping, I was just wondering if it'd have any support. Clearly the Kepler cards are preferable but they're few and far between. If I get a good enough deal I'll snag it and let you guys know!
 
intel_inside_or_not said:
MXM cards are ridiculously difficult to locate here in Australia without dealing with international shipping, I was just wondering if it'd have any support. Clearly the Kepler cards are preferable but they're few and far between. If I get a good enough deal I'll snag it and let you guys know!
Click to expand...
I'm also in Australia and have bought 3 working cards from AliExpress, the international shipping was painless and the cards arrived in 2 weeks, I have had longer waits from Australia post but generally domestic postage to my area takes 1 week.

The cards from China will be cheaper and as you said its near impossible to find a good value MXM card on other channels here.

I am constantly scanning eBay, Gumtree and Facebook for compatible cards domestically so better get in before me 😉
 
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intel_inside_or_not said:
MXM cards are ridiculously difficult to locate here in Australia without dealing with international shipping, I was just wondering if it'd have any support. Clearly the Kepler cards are preferable but they're few and far between. If I get a good enough deal I'll snag it and let you guys know!
Click to expand...

We are all talking about cards from China here. International shipping takes very long time to reach, but it will arrive eventually.
Selling prices of MXM cards here in Vietnam is also ridiculously high.
Buying from ebay we have to deal with nasty custom procedures and tax, too.
So we tend to use broker + shipping services, rather than buying directly.
 
Hi all, I don’t know if this is permitted, if not I’ll delete this post.
Please, I have an iMac 27” and i’m search for someone that want to sell a AMD WX7100 (or other models).
Write me if anyone is interested.

Thank you
 
hi everyone, is it possible to use gtx780m from a late-2013 imac ? (on a mid-2011 machine) if so, i believe there won't be any need to flash the gpu, though kext will need amendment?
 
disorderattempt said:
hi everyone, is it possible to use gtx780m from a late-2013 imac ? (on a mid-2011 machine) if so, i believe there won't be any need to flash the gpu, though kext will need amendment?
Click to expand...
Have you read the wiki post? The GTX 780M is mentioned in that post.
 
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