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

[stephengrenfell]

Found that contacts are not in a perfect shape, used Microfiber towel and Isopropyl to clean it up.

These GPU cards usually come nice and clean in an antistatic bag, but have been “washed” with some form of solvent and possibly “scrubbed” to remove all traces of dried out thermal paste and dust. This can leave residue making the gold edge contacts “dirty”. Hence the importance of isopropyl cleaning.

Look, many would say it is not worth it, from a labor/Return of Invest perspective it is not.
I like these old machines and giving them some more years lifetime is kind of satisfying.
A 21" iMac i repaired is heavily in use by my daughter and hopefully will be for the next couple years.
A guy who called me up for some issues with his Mac told me he held 2 iMacs with the graphics issue for long time because he can't throw them to the garbage disposal and would be very happy if i could repair them.

I couldn’t agree more. These old iMacs can be taken apart, upgraded, and repaired, reasonably easily; the same can’t be said for the newer iMacs. And as for the M1 based mac mini this is now just a consumable item like the iPad… that’s progress for some but not progress for all....

I paid 150 euros about six years ago for a 2011 27” iMac with a dying GPU card with random failed screen image. After replacing the original GPU card, and then again upgrading another failed GPU card about a year. I have been able to use it for hours everyday ever since.

It may be the same reason why people create great Firmware for the Cards, the Open Core and OCLP teams who make newest OS for old machines possible and much more, or all you folks here in the Forum who help guys like me when i have no clue what to do, even after reading dozens of pages.

It is thanks to these guys that my 10 year old iMac is today running the lastest version of macOS Big Sur, and without whom I too would be clueless and totally stuck. So a big thank you to you all .

The first MXM i bought had a wrong BIOS flashed, but fortunately no hardware issues.
If it turns out that the card is faulty (what i strongly belive) even when the seller guarantee that the card is working than it is very frustrating, having the hassle of returning and waiting for a replacment and losing additional lot of time because some people want to make some quick bucks let me in doubt to keep on repairing.

Sure it's frustrating. For me it was third time lucky to get to a fully working GPU card. But I am glad that I did.

Good luck.

 

[Pogoon]

Can someone please help me about brightness ? I posted a message above

After some research, I think I need first to unlock system partition with Hackintool if I want to replace the kext (AppleBacklight.kext) in System/Library/Extensions in Kext Utility. I use Big Sur, not Catalina.

However, when I use Hackintool (Utilities > House Icon (Disable Gatekeeper and mount the disk in read/write mode), I have an error :

spctl --master-disable
mount -uw /
mount_apfs: volume could not be mounted: Permission denied
mount: / failed with 66
killall Finder

I'm completely lost...

 

[Pogoon]

Can someone please help me about brightness ? I posted a message above

After some research, I think I need first to unlock system partition with Hackintool if I want to replace the kext (AppleBacklight.kext) in System/Library/Extensions with Kext Utility. I use Big Sur, not Catalina.

However, when I use Hackintool (Utilities > House Icon (Disable Gatekeeper and mount the disk in read/write mode), I have an error :



I'm completely lost...

Sorry, double message. Can't delete.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Sorry, double message. Can't delete.

Sorry we do not support Patched Sur. Move over to OCLP based installation of Big Sur, it has all iMac specific patches included, did this work myself. Everything has been described on the first post of this thread, it is a documentation.

 

[xanderon]

@Pogoon https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/

reinstall everything clean with OCLP (see link) and you are golden. have fun.

 

[jay508]

Mostly ATI/AMD graphics cards can cause hardware compatibility issues in our iMacs. That should be checked first.
For that purpose you should flash a completely empty VBIOS file to your card - the first 128kB have to be clean. Your OS of choice should be configured to allow remote access. If the iMac can actually boot with the card installed (that means you can do a remote login), but with a blank VBIOS, then there is a chance that a VBIOS can be created that allows for booting into some OS - with some display output actually working.

Hi @niky22 @internetzel flipping through techpowerup information W5170M is R9 M370X in Windows just different drivers, in HP 8770W model installed macOS 10.15.7 tested indeed R9 M370, see iMac R9 M370X Mac Edinton looked all over but couldn't find this VBiOS I want to refresh W5170M to test it, W7170M is also similar to R9 M395X Mac Edition. can you find iMac R9 M370X Mac Edinton VBiOS efi part fixed to W5170M VBiOS end of EFI part, just like Dell HP M5950 HD6770M similar way to work, I have W5170M card to test. Thanks!

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

 

[junley4]

Sorry, double message. Can't delete.

Been there bud. I am using the exact same mac as yours with the same gpu (k3100m). Clean install 11.2.3 using OCLP and your problem will be fixed plus the ease of updating your mac natively just like supported macs. Try it.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Big Sur and HD3000 QuickSync​

Folks, I have a bad and a good message to deliver!

The bad:

OTA (delta) updates with 2011 iMacs using an NVIDIA dGPU will be broken again, if you want QuicKSync!

The good:

Finally I got it working, again! At least using an older original AMD 6770 GPU using the latest graphics patches.

We will see how this can be included into the upcoming OCLP versions. For those able and willing to modify the root system volume of their Big Sur installation with an NVIDIA Kepler GPU I have added the necessary files and the recipe to the post linked above. It is not complete, though. One would need to enable the HD3000 through OC, again. And you need the HD3000*, AppleIntelSNB* files from High Sierra, too. Basically it would be the micropatcher Nvidia patch set and the AppleGVAcore.

EDIT:
This fix does only work with the original Tesla cards. No chance with a metal GPU.

 

[jackluke]

Big Sur and HD3000 QuickSync​

OTA updates with 2011 iMacs using an NVIDIA dGPU will be broken again, if you want QuicKSync!

Root patching a BigSur (or Monterey) system breaks only small ~3 GB OTA, but the full ~11 GB OTA updates are still allowed, they just require:

- an OpenCore config that spoofs to any supported BigSur board-id through <key>BoardProduct</key>
- a Sealed System installation (typically made through OC)
- any snapshot booting with a kmutil custom kernelcollection
- <key>SecureBootModel</key> Disabled to allow using a custom kernelcollection
- csr-active-config=%7f%08%00%00 or <key>csr-active-config</key> fwgAAA==
- boot-args "amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1" for using AppleGVA* binaries frameworks

 

[FlorisVN]

Big Sur and HD3000 QuickSync​

Folks, I have a bad and and good message to deliver!

The bad:

OTA updates with 2011 iMacs using an NVIDIA dGPU will be broken again, if you want QuicKSync!

The good:

Finally I got it working, again! At least using an older original AMD 6770 GPU using the latest graphics patches.

We will see how this can be included into the upcoming OCLP versions. For those able and willing to modify the root system volume of their Big Sur installation with an NVIDIA Kepler GPU I have added the necessary files and the recipe to the post linked above.

About the good news , wow this is great news, and awesome !

 

[Papoto]

AirPlay poll using Big Sur​

Please report back about the current AirPlay situation with Big Sur (and other macOS versions) on our iMac11,x and iMac12,x. I need the following information:

system, i.e. iMac11,1
gpu, i.e. NVIDIA K2100M or AMD WX4130
wifi, i.e. stock Atheros ur upgrade BCM94260CD
patcher, i.e. OCLP or @dosdude1 patcher including version and spoofing (light or moderate)
macOS version, i.e. Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur 11.2.3
AirPlay is working, i.e. yes or no or which problems

I can provide these data in advance:

iMac12,2, WX4130, Atheros, OLCP latest, moderate, Mojave, yes
iMac12,2, WX4130, Atheros, OLCP latest, moderate, Catalina, yes
iMac12,2, WX4130, Atheros, OLCP latest, moderate, Big Sur, no (cannot see any AirPlay capable devices on my network)
iMac12,2, WX4170, BCM943602CDP, OCLP latest, moderate, Big Sur, partly (systems finds my AirPlay AppleTV but cannot connect properly)
iMac11,3, RX480, BCM943602CDP, OCLP latest, moderate, Big Sur, partly (systems finds my AirPlay AppleTV but cannot connect properly)

Thanks in advance and have a nice weekend!

iMac 12,2; GTX880M; BCM943602CDP; OCLP 0.2.3 Minimal; Big Sur 11.4; Can airplay from Safari/Youtube & from AppleTV to ATV3, Roku & my Samsung TV. But can't see the mirroring option on my menu bar. Use Airparrot3 to compensate where airplay is not an option (Facebook or Chrome for example)...

 

[Papoto]

Yesterday was D-day!

After waiting a long time for my K4100M arrived its finally here.
What did worry me was the RAM-type that was not the same as Nikey22 wrote the rom for.

View attachment 1741625
View attachment 1741626

Installed GPU and booted right up into High Sierra.

Time to flash... I decided to go with the USB-boot method and flash logging in remotely via SSH.
Backup and flash went ok but verification shows there were different ROM-size, got a bit scared but nikey22 told me I should not worry about that.

View attachment 1741631

After reboot I got boot screen and every thing worked as expected. Using the UGA (overclocked rom)
everything is super stable on benchmarks and YouTube 8K video.


I haven't had time to test any games yet but my guess it will be alright there to.



Screen Brightness in High Sierra was fixed by installing AppleBacklightFixup.kext but I can not get it to work in Big Sur. I tried both AppleBacklightFixup.kext and modding the already installed AppleBacklight.kext.

I guess it some sort of security problem?

View attachment 1741635


Anyhow the computer feels much more snappier with Metal Support and a good GPU that can take stress away from the CPU.

View attachment 1741638



Did some Benchmarks for you.

View attachment 1741639
Valley - Antialiasing off

All Benchmarks are made under Big Sur 11.2.3

View attachment 1741640
View attachment 1741641
View attachment 1741642

Big thank you to Nikey22 for making this possible and also for assisting when making the flash!
When I manage to fix the backlight issue under Big Sur I will totally leave High Sierra behind forever.

Hi ChrizLoud,
How were you able to make Geekbench recognize the Intel HD Graphics 3000 GPU under Big Sur ?? My system, which is similar to your is only able to see my NVIDIA card...

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi ChrizLoud,
How were you able to make Geekbench recognize the Intel HD Graphics 3000 GPU under Big Sur ?? My system, which is similar to your is only able to see my NVIDIA card...

OCLP disables the HD3000 because it breaks sleep and we had no use of it until some days before. Installing the HD3000 files and the AppleGVA frameworks would need patching of the root system volume (which breaks the delta OTA updates).

Currently I do no own an NVIDIA card myself and cannot test the patches I did using an old ATI 6770 card with the new OpenGL patches available (so called TS2 or TeraScale 2 patches). Runs impressively well.

Unless a macOS terminal aware owner of this type of system (NVIDIA + iMac12,x) repeats this test we will not implement it within the OCLP.

Sitting and waiting is not an option!

 

[Mischa85]

Hope you get your project done. I am still confused about the LVDS/DP story. Still have this two different vBIOS version for the AMD 4670 for the iMac10,1 and iMac11,2 and wonder where the difference is.

Would you be so kind to post those?

Also, does anybody know of any document describing the AMD VBIOS, especially the way the connectors are defined? (equivalent to NVIDIA's DCB tables?)

 

[Pogoon]

Sorry we do not support Patched Sur. Move over to OCLP based installation of Big Sur, it has all iMac specific patches included, did this work myself. Everything has been described on the first post of this thread, it is a documentation.

Thanks Ausdauer, I made it with OCLP!

Been there bud. I am using the exact same mac as yours with the same gpu (k3100m). Clean install 11.2.3 using OCLP and your problem will be fixed plus the ease of updating your mac natively just like supported macs. Try it.

Yep, I tried with OCLP and it works perfectly now, I think I have recovered the brightness! Thanks ! Btw for iMac mid-2011, do i have to manually install the kext files for more brightness or it's over (I mean, all kext are installed automatically with OCLP) ? Thanks.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thanks Ausdauer, I made it with OCLP!

Yep, I tried with OCLP and it works perfectly now, I think I have recovered the brightness! Thanks ! Btw for iMac mid-2011, do i have to manually install the kext files for more brightness or it's over (I mean, all kext are installed automatically with OCLP) ? Thanks.

There will be no extensions needed to be installed. The brightness fix is already part of OCLP and you have to live this the status as it is today.

OCLP does not install kernel extensions. It makes the fixes available before booting through memory injection. Do no mess with adding extensions do the disk, it will break the ability to apply Apple delta software updates. Only full installers will then work out like 11.5 and 11.6.

Check the first post, OCLP and OpenCore documentation to learn more.

 

[ndiego75]

Hi All, i have a 2011 imac 21.5 with High Sierra. The video card died and had black screen so i decided to change the video card with an HP K1100M, flashed it correctly, have all 4 leds green but still have black screen even after boot. Attached external monitor lights up but still bllack screen. Changed also LVDS cable but didnt solve. Osx boots correctly since i can see it in my dhcp server and can ping ip. Was thinking also to change the backlight inverter but thought that external monitor should work anyway. Any ideas about what i can do? Thanks

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi All, i have a 2011 imac 21.5 with High Sierra. The video card died and had black screen so i decided to change the video card with an HP K1100M, flashed it correctly, have all 4 leds green but still have black screen even after boot. Attached external monitor lights up but still bllack screen. Changed also LVDS cable but didnt solve. Osx boots correctly since i can see it in my dhcp server and can ping ip. Was thinking also to change the backlight inverter but thought that external monitor should work anyway. Any ideas about what i can do? Thanks

Try pressing alt/option on cold or warm boot to fire up the internal screen. This is likely the black screen issue described on the very first post within the known issues of the NVIDIA cards.

The several solutions are described there, too.

 

[ndiego75]

Try pressing alt/option on cold or warm boot to fire up the internal screen. This is likely the black screen issue described on the very first post within the known issues of the NVIDIA cards.

The several solutions are described there, too.

Already tried, still black screen on both. Also verified what type of ram is on the gpu which is hynix.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Already tried, still black screen on both

If you want my help and my time please post everything you did before and try to be as precise as possible.

There might be still a chance to fix this by applying the AGC patches as described in the black screen issue solution. I cannot guarante that this issue shows exactly the same symptoms on every iMac with every NVIDIA card. You would need a second Mac or remote access (which needs to be enabled in advance) or you prepare an external UBS disk with High Sierra patched with the modified AGC to re-enable the display ports.
Try to disconnect the internal LCD and use the external, only. Maybe the card is dead and that is the root cause.

 

[ndiego75]

If you want my help and my time please post everything you did before and try to be as precise as possible.

There might be still a chance to fix this by applying the AGC patches as described in the black screen issue solution. I cannot guarante that this issue shows exactly the same symptoms on every iMac with every NVIDIA card. You would need a second Mac or remote access (which needs to be enabled in advance) or you prepare an external UBS disk with High Sierra patched with the modified AGC to re-enable the display ports.
Try to disconnect the internal LCD and use the external, only. May be the card is dead and that is the root cause.

Thanks for your help.
Imac was working fine since one day there has been a power outage in the house. Once back the imac didn't turn on. So i changed the power supply and got back to life the imac but had immediately black screen. Digging around internet found could be a dead gpu. So i bought an HP K1100M with hynix memory from ebay from a seller which guaranteed it was working. Changed it. Got an usb linux with the correct rom, flashed it, no errors. Rebooted still black screen. Saw there was a little damage on the LVDS cable and changed it also. Have tried to connect an external monitor with a firewire vga adapter and when the imac boots the external monitor sees a signal but still remains black. All 4 leds under the LVDS cable become green after power on. (do not know if they were all green before gpu exchange). The imac boots correctly from the usb stick or its ssd drive since i could flash the gpu and can ping the imac when osc has loaded.
This is all i can remember to know.
Just tried to boot with lvds cable disconnected and got the secondary working, i'll try to patch it directly

 

[voot566]

Question, I recently got an Alienware GTX780M, however, I saw there are two ROM available. May I please ask which one I should use?
Do I have to check which Vram this card use and to find a suitable ROM? or the Rom provided in first thread, that is universal???
thank you so much

 

[internetzel]

Would you be so kind to post those?

Also, does anybody know of any document describing the AMD VBIOS, especially the way the connectors are defined? (equivalent to NVIDIA's DCB tables?)

Here the tools I used that helped me very much, the most helpful ones first:

• ATOMTableResize
  Exchange and modify ATOM objects easily, automatically fixing the checksum upon saving - can be used together with "Hex Fiend" by adding the correct path in the file "editor.ini"
  this tool was originally recommended to me by NickD
• Hex Fiend,
  together with PCI option ROM template
• EfiRom from EDK2
  EfiRom (BaseTools/Source/C/EfiRom) can be compiled for macOS relatively easy but I attached the executable here
  Combines compressed EFI drivers and legacy VBIOS part into a VBIOS image ready for flashing
• AtomDis
  For checking the ATOM pointer tables after manually moving/modifying them, compiled executable attached,
  header file atombios.h contains valuable information about the structure of most ATOM objects
• netkas thread
  about how to modify port mapping in assembly code
• radeon_bios_decode and redsock_bios_decoder
  radeon_bios_decode with hotplug id output
  get information about port mappings in a VBIOS file
• Red BIOS Editor
  tune clock settings (transferring the PowerPlayInfo to a VIBOS accepted by RBE, editing it and finally transfer the edited PowerPlayInfo back to the target VBIOS),
  can be used in macOS by means of wine
• Polaris BIOS Editor
  mainly helpful for quickly inspecting the VRAM_Info ATOM object and for correcting the checksum after manual modifications,
  doesn't run in wine, so Windows only
• UEFIRomExtract
  can be used to extract and decompress GOP or CoreEG2 EFI drivers from a VBIOS file

The problem with AMD cards is that there's no simple table for modifying the port mappings. First there's the ATOM table "Object_Info", which is more or less what you're looking for.
But the port mapping will have to match with some of the framebuffer "personalities" of the macOS drivers - or you have to patch the driver. You'll have to search the web for finding out how to do this.
Last but not least and being the most difficult thing is that the port mapping is hard coded into Apple's EFI driver in the VBIOS. That means in case the port mapping in the Apple driver doesn't match with your card you'll have to disassemble and patch the EFI code in all necessary places in order to get a boot screen.

 

[Mischa85]

Here the tools I used that helped me very much, the most helpful ones first:

• ATOMTableResize
  Exchange and modify ATOM objects easily, automatically fixing the checksum upon saving - can be used together with "Hex Fiend" by adding the correct path in the file "editor.ini"
  this tool was originally recommended to me by NickD
• Hex Fiend,
  together with PCI option ROM template
• EfiRom from EDK2
  EfiRom (BaseTools/Source/C/EfiRom) can be compiled for macOS relatively easy but I attached the executable here
  Combines compressed EFI drivers and legacy VBIOS part into a VBIOS image ready for flashing
• AtomDis
  For checking the ATOM pointer tables after manually moving/modifying them, compiled executable attached,
  header file atombios.h contains valuable information about the structure of most ATOM objects
• netkas thread
  about how to modify port mapping in assembly code
• radeon_bios_decode and redsock_bios_decoder
  get information about port mappings in a VBIOS file
• Red BIOS Editor
  tune clock settings (transferring the PowerPlayInfo to a VIBOS accepted by RBE, editing it and finally transfer the edited PowerPlayInfo back to the target VBIOS),
  can be used in macOS by means of wine
• Polaris BIOS Editor
  mainly helpful for quickly inspecting the VRAM_Info ATOM object and for correcting the checksum after manual modifications,
  doesn't run in wine, so Windows only

The problem with AMD cards is that there's no simple table for modifying the port mappings. First there's the ATOM table "Object_Info", which is more or less what you're looking for.
But the port mapping will have to match with some of the framebuffer "personalities" of the macOS drivers - or you have to patch the driver. You'll have to search the web for finding out how to do this.
Last but not least and being the most difficult thing is that the port mapping is hard coded into Apple's EFI driver in the VBIOS. That means in case the port mapping in the Apple driver doesn't match with your card you'll have to disassemble and patch the EFI code in all necessary places in order to get a boot screen.

Boom. That's a lot of useful info! Awesome

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thanks for your help.
Imac was working fine since one day there has been a power outage in the house. Once back the imac didn't turn on. So i changed the power supply and got back to life the imac but had immediately black screen. Digging around internet found could be a dead gpu. So i bought an HP K1100M with hynix memory from ebay from a seller which guaranteed it was working. Changed it. Got an usb linux with the correct rom, flashed it, no errors. Rebooted still black screen. Saw there was a little damage on the LVDS cable and changed it also. Have tried to connect an external monitor with a firewire vga adapter and when the imac boots the external monitor sees a signal but still remains black. All 4 leds under the LVDS cable become green after power on. (do not know if they were all green before gpu exchange). The imac boots correctly from the usb stick or its ssd drive since i could flash the gpu and can ping the imac when osc has loaded.
This is all i can remember to know.
Just tried to boot with lvds cable disconnected and got the secondary working, i'll try to patch it directly

Replace the external display with on having a mini DP or HDMI port and connect it to the mini DP port of your iMac. Cannot guarantee that this converters to VGA (analog signal) still work or will be supported at all.