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

[Dilli]

I have an identical iMac. According to someone on techpowerup Maxwell is the last gen of cards to support LVDS, so metal might be possible. If you have a card sitting around try removing all drives and using an opencore usb to see if you get video using a Maxwell card. The only card I have that might be physically compatible is a HD 5670, which I guess wouldn't be a pointless upgrade now that TS2 support is in beta with OCLP IF it had LVDS, which as far as I can tell it does not.

The GTX 765m Looks like the cheapest card (at around $150) with both metal and LVDS (I can't find any data on the quadro cards) and will need a heatsink mod if it works. As much as I hate to hear it too, it just isn't economical to upgrade the graphics of the 9,1.

Sorry if this has already been said, I haven't read all 612 pages

I have been using GTX 765 metal card for a long time and it works well.

 

[Dilli]

Hello,

just installed a new Catalina on my iMac2009 using OPLP. Was pretty smooth sailing and all is working perfect. Much appreciate all the work you guys spend on improving the experience.

The only thing that is a little odd is how iStat Menu interprets all the sensors and fans and I wonder if anyone has ideas how to over come it? The interesting part is that for example smcfancontrol or Macs Fan Control are able to read the correct values for sensors and fans. This has been reported before somewhere around page 555 but no real solution given. Pretty sure it is related to the spoofing that results into the differences. So properly a question on what does iStat read to list the sensor and fan list. Under a dosdude1 install they are working correct.

Any hints, pointers or ideas how to get iStat Menu working again are much appreciated.

You can continue to use MacFan Control with gives better results. Istat menu is not related to the patching. Maybe you can switch to macFancontrol till you come across a solution. Cheers

 

[Dilli]

Massive Thanks to all those who have helped, given input and given me advise through my journey.

I now have a completed fully working, Nvidia K5100m 8gig card running, Mojave on my 2011 27" iMac, Im now getting messages to upgrade to Big Sur,

I am happy that I can be running Mojave after 2 years of not having my iMac working at all and fighting with the previous carrier who sent me a card that I returned it to and never got my money back on because they say it was lost in the return I was out 300 dollars for the graphics card as the insurance on the card was only 10 dollars, from now on I'll only return and insurance will be for the whole value of the card so if china loses the return the us postal service can pay for the lost package or something.

I have 2 additional cards that I received untested and unused that are for the 2011 iMac if anyone needs a card I have it in the USA and willing to sell them if anyone needs.

the K3100m 4 gig card and the 5000m 4gig card

Happy building to everyone

Anyone having advice on if Big Sur and Monterey works on the 2011 or to point me to the advice or support pages would be appreciated too.

Thanks John

Yes Big Sur will work with Ocpl patcher. However for Monetery please read the documentation carefully in the Monetery thread on page 1. You may not get wifi/BT support as Apple dropped the hardware support and maybe you need to upgrade your hardware. Page 1 of the respective Big Sur and Monetery thread is your bible so proceed carefully. Good Luck.

 

[Dilli]

Hi all, my apologies but I have not understand the differences between GTX 780M + and GTX 780M ++ bios on the Table of Working NVIDIA Graphic Cards.
Are these only two different kind of bios to test and use the preferred one? Or they have fixes for different kind of hardwares?

Thanks

This notes provides the difference in both cards you are looking for. Both are different Bios.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi all, my apologies but I have not understand the differences between GTX 780M + and GTX 780M ++ bios on the Table of Working NVIDIA Graphic Cards.
Are these only two different kind of bios to test and use the preferred one? Or they have fixes for different kind of hardwares?

Thanks

The difference between ++ and + is mentioned just below the table. The advantage or difference of the (765,770) 780+ vBIOS is mentioned in the particular post (follow the link and read!).

 

[Tomvreugdenhil]

Today I did another successful GPU upgrade. After upgrading three 2011 27” iMacs with NVIDIA Geforce GTX 770M, 770M and 780M respectfully, I managed to get my hands on a mint condition NVIDIA Quadro K4100M from a Dell M6800 I believe, and an iMac used for CAD modeling in W10 in need of an upgrade, so a perfect combination in my opinion.

Installation was just as the others I did and without even modifying the VBIOS, the iMac booted right up (without the grey booting screen of course). For me the standard procedure for VBIOS flashing is by using the USB Linux tool paired with the non-overclocked K4100M VBIOS by Nikey22.

Flashing went accordingly and voila after a restart the iMac was in perfect working condition, one slight kext modification later for brightness control and the upgrade was successful.

Unigine valley shows approximately correct scores, 2360 points and 56.4 FPS in macOS High Sierra, both very acceptable for me. Windows scores are slightly lower, but nothing to be concerned with and still a huge upgrade from the original 6970M.

Thank you to the developers making this possible, these iMacs can easily run for a few more years like this!

 

[Dilli]

Today I did another successful GPU upgrade. After upgrading three 2011 27” iMacs with NVIDIA Geforce GTX 770M, 770M and 780M respectfully, I managed to get my hands on a mint condition NVIDIA Quadro K4100M from a Dell M6800 I believe, and an iMac used for CAD modeling in W10 in need of an upgrade, so a perfect combination in my opinion.

Installation was just as the others I did and without even modifying the VBIOS, the iMac booted right up (without the grey booting screen of course). For me the standard procedure for VBIOS flashing is by using the USB Linux tool paired with the non-overclocked K4100M VBIOS by Nikey22.

Flashing went accordingly and voila after a restart the iMac was in perfect working condition, one slight kext modification later for brightness control and the upgrade was successful.

Unigine valley shows approximately correct scores, 2360 points and 56.4 FPS in macOS High Sierra, both very acceptable for me. Windows scores are slightly lower, but nothing to be concerned with and still a huge upgrade from the original 6970M.

Thank you to the developers making this possible, these iMacs can easily run for a few more years like this!

What was the slight kext modification that you did for brightness control.

 

[Tomvreugdenhil]

What was the slight kext modification that you did for brightness control.

Replacing some string within the AppleBacklight-something.kext to allow for the correct brightness steps within macOS. I believe it is denoted in post #8,044
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/post-28702210

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I am aware of the Black Screen issue, but I am under the impression that a solution for that is already provided.

Black Screen: After complete installation of the iMac the internal LCD can stay black, only three status LED light up. This is the black screen software issue. Normally you can get around it (temporarily) by pressing alt/option on boot. Late 2009 system you will face (only there) a more severe variant. After a PRAM reset the LCD gets and remains black. To fix this for all iMacs a kernel extension needs to be patched at best in advance. Only after booting into this patched macOS the screen will come back. Use this package installer to achieve this with all ++ cards on all systems up to macOS Catalina. Do not use this package on Big Sur. important: OpenCore (OCLP) with agdpmod=vit9696 in the boot-args fires up the LCD after a PRAM reset or GPU change, too.

My only confusion is that the description explicitly says all ++ cards. And my choice being a K1100M, is a + card, not a ++ one. My educated guess is, the same still applies to the K1100M, regardless of it NOT BEING a ++ card.

The + cards need OpenCore to enable brightness control anyway. Usually users will install OCLP and get the solution this way. I have just mentioned the solution for people brave enough to use their own OC config or users sticking with the original Catalina Loader and 0.5.9 OC version.

 

[lumos]

The difference between ++ and + is mentioned just below the table. The advantage or difference of the (765,770) 780+ vBIOS is mentioned in the particular post (follow the link and read!).

My confusion is related to what I have read on the table:

++
BIOS by @nikey22, and @stephle for the K3000M/K5000M that currently enable boot screens, native brightness control, target display mode.

What the read text mean? It can be used ONLY on K3000M / K5000M or also on the 780M?
I follow the link and the ++ version report a 780M but my doubt remain.

Maybe should be removed the red text to avoid confusion?

Thanks

 

[Ausdauersportler]

My confusion is related to what I have read on the table:

++
BIOS by @nikey22, and @stephle for the K3000M/K5000M that currently enable boot screens, native brightness control, target display mode.

What the read text mean? It can be used ONLY on K3000M / K5000M or also on the 780M?
I follow the link and the ++ version report a 780M but my doubt remain.

Maybe should be removed the red text to avoid confusion?

Thanks

This is just a list mentioning the fact that @stephle published the vBIOS versions for K3000M/K5000M while @nikey22 is responsible for all other achievements. ++ means native brightness without OC.

After more than a year there is only a single user confused.

 

[cabinfourus]

let the iMac boot, everything is black, the boot loader is waiting 20s before booting, so give the whole process 1min time, then head over to your Router Page and find the right IP that the iMac got through DHCP

I can't seem to find my IP for the iMac I am working on. Is this going to be found on the wireless connections? Or, could I plug the iMac into the router directly and then look for the IP? I have tried every IP listed in connected devices in my router.

 

[cabinfourus]

Each GPU has an identification string printed on it.

What does the K stand for?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I can't seem to find my IP for the iMac I am working on. Is this going to be found on the wireless connections? Or, could I plug the iMac into the router directly and then look for the IP? I have tried every IP listed in connected devices in my router.

1. Cable connection is needed!
2. Ask Nvidia for their own logic regarding the GPU chip and card naming scheme.

 

[cabinfourus]

Find IP
let the iMac boot, everything is black, the boot loader is waiting 20s before booting, so give the whole process 1min time, then head over to your Router Page and find the right IP that the iMac got through DHCP

I have several wireless routers it can connect to. How would I know which one it is on? I think my ignorance has me very confused.

 

[axrst]

I have several wireless routers it can connect to. How would I know which one it is on? I think my ignorance has me very confused.

As you told before, use cable = use ethernet connection. Not wireless

 

[axrst]

Can someone please tell me why for the temperature sensor problem we have to connect the original heat sink sensor to the ODD connector in the logic board and vice versa?

The sensor for the GPU is different from the ODD?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Can someone please tell me why for the temperature sensor problem we have to connect the original heat sink sensor to the ODD connector in the logic board and vice versa?

The sensor for the GPU is different from the ODD?

Have you checked the post explaining the mod? Link can be found on the first post, too (#10900).

 

[lumos]

This is just a list mentioning the fact that @stephle published the vBIOS versions for K3000M/K5000M while @nikey22 is responsible for all other achievements. ++ means native brightness without OC.

After more than a year there is only a single user confused.

More than a year for you, don’t confuse that all the users read constantly your thread.
If a user indicate that it does not understand you can simply post an educated answer like the question you have received.
It’s a matter of good education, no more.

 

[The_Croupier]

More than a year for you, don’t confuse that all the users read constantly your thread.
If a user indicate that it does not understand you can simply post an educated answer like the question you have received.
It’s a matter of good education, no more.

If people can't understand the basics perhaps they shouldn't be tampering with their iMac.
This is not a support service! Nobody gets paid here, if you want support call apple.

Most people do the right thing and really research and try their best and only reach out for help after exhausting all their resources and learnt knowledge, The good ones also do a very detailed post explaing everything they have tried, their set up etc but I'm finding more and more people are not putting the time and effort in and want to be carried through the process and spoon fed, this is not on.

 

[X-Housed]

Today i upgraded a 27" iMac 2011 with a nVidia GTX870M 3GB N15E-GT-A2 GPU and flashed vBIOS GTX870M_V1 from Nikey22 in this thread. Additionally i installed a new 1TB SSD.
The problem is that several tries to install High Sierra, Catalina (Dos Dude) failed because installation process stuck at about 60%.
Even the old High Sierra disk gets stuck when i try to boot from USB
Any suggestions what can i try or is it a Hardware issue with the GPU?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

More than a year for you, don’t confuse that all the user read constantly your thread.
If a users indicate that it does not understand you can simply post an educated answer like the question you have received.
It’s a matter of good education, no more.

You are the first complaining about this.

The first post is not a thesis or a technical publication. It is evolving all the time, tries to reflect the new developments and to honour the real contributors like @stephle and @nikey22 and @internetzel at the same time. The whole story started nearly 7 years ago and grew rapidly at the beginning 2019/2020.

Meanwhile the thread is flooded with reports of failing hardware components and dying graphics cards.

Unfortunately some users have the bad habit to act like consumers granted the right to waste other peoples life time with pointless posts. It is in fact a matter of education to act as silent as possible, try first to understand the simple facts, read the available documentation, read it another time, solve the problems on his own before bothering others with a "link please" attitude.

You are free to rewrite it all if you have a better understanding of all this. I will happily let it go! Honestly I am tired of posts like yours!

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Today i upgraded a 27" iMac 2011 with a nVidia GTX870M 3GB N15E-GT-A2 GPU and flashed vBIOS GTX870M_V1 from Nikey22 in this thread. Additionally i installed a new 1TB SSD.
The problem is that several tries to install High Sierra, Catalina (Dos Dude) failed because installation process stuck at about 60%.
Even the old High Sierra disk gets stuck when i try to boot from USB
Any suggestions what can i try or is it a Hardware issue with the GPU?

Installations failures and booting failures are somewhat different, right? If you cannot boot into High Sierra and the progress bar stopped after approx. 60% it is the point where macOS calls the graphics init routines and prepares the graphical login window to come up.

If you see a failure at this point the probability to have a bad GPU, or a badly installed GPU, or a badly prepared heat sink and a short between sink and GPU is very high. It could be even the four screws of the GPU and sink fixed in a way bending the card - which may end up like you described.

If you have some pictures of the GPU and the installation on the sink and the prepared heat sink one could check this visually.

From your short post nobody can really give you a diagnosis of your system, sorry.

There is a hardware problem section on the first post. Did you check this?

 

[The_Croupier]

Today i upgraded a 27" iMac 2011 with a nVidia GTX870M 3GB N15E-GT-A2 GPU and flashed vBIOS GTX870M_V1 from Nikey22 in this thread. Additionally i installed a new 1TB SSD.
The problem is that several tries to install High Sierra, Catalina (Dos Dude) failed because installation process stuck at about 60%.
Even the old High Sierra disk gets stuck when i try to boot from USB
Any suggestions what can i try or is it a Hardware issue with the GPU?

Have you tried any trouble shooting?
Boot to safe mode?
Put the old card back if working and install High Sierra?
Checked the disk for errors?
Tried installing from recovery mode?

 

[X-Housed]

Thank you for your fast answers @Ausdauersportler and @The_Croupier.

"Have you tried any trouble shooting?"
I disassembled the iMac prior posting and taped the X-Clamp to avoid short like one user described in a older posting.

"Boot to safe mode?"
No

"Put the old card back if working and install High Sierra?"
No, it is faulty

"Checked the disk for errors?"
Like i mentioned, Booting from 2 USB Sticks and older High Sierra Disk failed, dont think all 3 have errors.

"Tried installing from recovery mode?"
Yes, failed either

"If you see a failure at this point the probability to have a bad GPU, or a badly installed GPU, or a badly prepared heat sink and a short between sink and GPU is very high. It could be even the four screws of the GPU and sink fixed in a way bending the card - which may end up like you described"

That make sense to me, i will check the Heatsink, i may have to grind more.
When it is disassembled i try to make some photos.