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

[internetzel]

Okay, but hd6770m contains gop that enables bootscreen. Without that gop or with pc gop bootscreen won’t loaded. That’s why some users used gop from hd6770m (Apple) at HP GPUs and they get bootscreen work on iMac 2011. So Apple gop play common sense in to make it bootscreen working.

As far as I know those TeraScale EFI drivers didn't implement the GOP protocol yet but only the UGA protocol. Furthermore CoreEG2 did not yet exist by then.

Gop rom contains efi compressed gop driver, you can decompress it if you create a new file with efi image only.

My method: extract efi image from 55AA gop rom, then use Parralel desktop and boot from usb with efishell bootloader, mount fs0 and decompress image, then compress new image to see final results of compressed image, it will help to recognize entire image in gop rom. The efi rom doesn’t contain checksum so it can be modified easy.

When Apple end mxm era, the GOP driver was included in platform bios. But reverse procedure make non booting iMac. So EfiRom compression (from new times) not working.

I've had no problems decompressing the Apple GOP/CoreEG2 driver, modifying it using IDA or hex editor and compressing it using EfiRom.

So idea is to use 6770m Apple rom header that contains some info about framebuffer and rom revision... and patch entry data to meet data in BaffinM PE32 efi. Also BaffinM driver is limited to devices 67EF, 67FD or DF... so they should be also patched and checksum of PEI32 correct

Which driver are you referring to?
The VBIOSes I created for the WX41x0 series have device id 0x67E8, so which driver wouldn't work with it?

The problem here is I made 5-10 test builds per day to make 4150 work on new oses, about 200+ builds and about 30+ gpu unbricking... here is testing not so fast, so I shared all ideas with community, hope that would be useful

Yes, that has also been my experience. And thanks for sharing your results!

To solve bootscreen, you need to back to 6770m or compatible gpu and patch them with custom gop rom, that will help to solve problems with newer gpu!


Thanks for all testers and developers, hope that bootscreen will be solved soon.

I will back to work of 4150 powermanagment issues and output glitches

 

[dfranetic]

Unfortunately there seem to exist two grades of Polaris 11/21 (Baffin) chips. There are original VBIOSes that clock the GPU at 1053 MHz (Apple even underclocked those in their MacBooks) and others that clock the GPU at approx. 1200 MHz (Polaris 11) or even 1275 MHz (Polaris 12).
The VRAM clock is commonly 1500 MHz on all models but there also exist variants that clock it at 1750 MHz.
There's also a Polaris 31 chip, which can be clocked even higher, but that doesn't seem to have been put on MXM boards.

The same is true for the Polaris 10/20 (Ellesmere) chips. Likewise there's also a Polaris 30 chip which hasn't been put on MXM boards.

That's a great explanation, thank you!

For us I think we should have public VBIOSes that have clock settings that work on all card models, the benefit of the later/better chip types being lower temperatures and hence increased lifetime.

That would be my thinking, too. (Of course, I'm not a 'graphics-intensive user', so my opinion may be slightly biased...)

 

[G3llings]

Yep, as @Nguyen Duc Hieu says, it's mostly because of price. While being a slightly better card, at the moment the WX7100 is roughly four times the price of a M4000M.

The M4000M should work on HS with Nvidia webdrivers, but my idea is to build a windows only gaming iMac for my kid at the most budget price possible.

This is exactly what I did, strictly ran Windows due to no boot screen, even with OpenCore. It ran very well with the m4000m and modified vbios. In Catzilla benchmark I scored at the top end of 1050 TI desktop performance, and topped out at something like 68c under load. I have a 2010 27" that I accidentally shorted the power supply (Big Spark!), I was going to stick my m4000m in that as a gaming PC. On hold until I come across another cheap 2010 or 2011 27".

Edit: this was with a 2 pipe heatsink. I'm sure a 3 pipe would run even cooler.

 

[m0bil]

This is exactly what I did, strictly ran Windows due to no boot screen, even with OpenCore. It ran very well with the m4000m and modified vbios. In Catzilla benchmark I scored at the top end of 1050 TI desktop performance, and topped out at something like 68c under load. I have a 2010 27" that I accidentally shorted the power supply (Big Spark!), I was going to stick my m4000m in that as a gaming PC. On hold until I come across another cheap 2010 or 2011 27".

Edit: this was with a 2 pipe heatsink. I'm sure a 3 pipe would run even cooler.

I've ordered a M4000M too for testing, hope to get it by start of september.

Anyone knows what would be needed to get an emulated boot screen using OpenCore on such (Maxwell) card ??

My plan is to test it on High Sierra + Nvidia Web Driver (think it should be supported) and Windows 10. Getting Opencore emulated boot screen would be a great plus.

 

[RandomDSdevel]

⁝

• The kind of those two 0R resistors is irrelevant. Even bare solid wire would do, but I still somewhat refuse to recommend it. Moreover, those two resistors are needed only to make the card POST in an iMac12,2. If you will be using the card in a HP laptop, you can (probably) omit them.

⁝

-----OK; I could still add them just to be safe, though, right?

⁝

• I buy parts at a local electronic parts store. (You can DM me about the EEPROM if you're from EU - my usual sources did not have any.)

⁝

-----Well, I was really asking what online sources you might recommend since I didn't think I had any physical ones locally, but I might actually see one now that I've looked again. I'll have to check and see if they have any of these parts in stock, though.

⁝

• You can remove that black plastic sheet - it's for insulation. The card will function just as fine without it. (Of course, if this insulation is needed in your particular 'mounting scenario', just reattach it with some kapton tape when finished.)

⁝

-----OK, but how would you get it off to begin with in the first place? It looks pretty well shrink-wrapped down; I didn't want to risk ripping it.

⁝

I'm not sure if adding an EEPROM + RP1 is enough to force that HP laptop to read VBIOS from the card instead of the laptop BIOS. (If I understand correctly, this is how HP laptops load VBIOS information.) I think @edwardgeo knows the answer to this.

-----I'll look forward to hopefully hearing him confirm that, then.

 

[dfranetic]

-----OK; I could still add them just to be safe, though, right?

As it was already discussed, those jumpers possibly bypass some kind of safety mechanism, which - as it seems - is irrelevant to our iMacs. It may be relevant to HP laptops. I suggest you omit them at first and add them if you encounter problems.

-----OK, but how would you get it off to begin with in the first place? It looks pretty well shrink-wrapped down; I didn't want to risk ripping it.

My cards came with this sheet removed. And yes, it is glued to the PCB. I’d remove it carefully with a flat end of a spudger - starting with the edges. (I can’t guarantee success - you may end up tearing it off.)

Just to be clear - this mod was intended for use in an iMac. You’re welcome to try it out in a HP laptop, but this is then your own experiment.

 

[G3llings]

I've ordered a M4000M too for testing, hope to get it by start of september.

Anyone knows what would be needed to get an emulated boot screen using OpenCore on such (Maxwell) card ??

My plan is to test it on High Sierra + Nvidia Web Driver (think it should be supported) and Windows 10. Getting Opencore emulated boot screen would be a great plus.

I saw someone local on Facebook posted a 2011 27 with 2500s and 16gb ram for $250. Went for a long shot and asked if they would take 150 and they said yes! So I'll be taking it apart tomorrow to install the m4000m and try OpenCore. I have a boot screen on my cMP 5,1 with RX 580 so I should be able to get the m4000m working on here. I had 0 knowledge about OpenCore last time I tried. I saved my OpenCore SD card and just verified that it boots with stock parts in it.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I saw someone local on Facebook posted a 2011 27 with 2500s and 16gb ram for $250. Went for a long shot and asked if they would take 150 and they said yes! So I'll be taking it apart tomorrow to install the m4000m and try OpenCore. I have a boot screen on my cMP 5,1 with RX 580 so I should be able to get the m4000m working on here. I had 0 knowledge about OpenCore last time I tried. I saved my OpenCore SD card and just verified that it boots with stock parts in it.

Just my speculation, so don't blame me if it doesn't work with you.
- You should start with a working iMac and Quadro GPU first.
- Install nVIDIA web driver to HS. Switch to nVIDIA webdriver in HS.
- Install nVidia driver to Windows, get BootCamp also (for OS switching should Opencore doesn't work for a bootscreen
- Install OCLP on HS EFI volume
- Modified Opencore config.plist for a longer waiting time, switch on NVDIA webdriver.
- Unplug the machine and install M4000m. If Windows doesn't boot up, you need to flash a modded vBIOS.

Read more from here

Extras:

• shikigva=40 boot flag: Swaps boardID to iMac14,2 for better Nvidia Support and whitelists patches (Double check this bootflag, it may conflict with OCLP setting which emulates boardID of iMacPro 1,1)
• NvidiaWeb property: Forces nvda_drv=1 on each boot, required for systems with non-native NVRAM(EmuVariableUEFI)

 

[G3llings]

Just my speculation, so don't blame me if it doesn't work with you.
- You should start with a working iMac and Quadro GPU first.
- Install nVIDIA web driver to HS. Switch to nVIDIA webdriver in HS.
- Install nVidia driver to Windows, get BootCamp also (for OS switching should Opencore doesn't work for a bootscreen
- Install OCLP on HS EFI volume
- Modified Opencore config.plist for a longer waiting time, switch on NVDIA webdriver.
- Unplug the machine and install M4000m. If Windows doesn't boot up, you need to flash a modded vBIOS.

Read more from here

Thanks! I do plan to flash the bios from @jay508 through the Linux ssh route.

I will probably start with Windows since I know it will automatically load the drivers for me after the GPU swap and flash. I'll install TeamViewer to be sure before swapping the gpu. Then I can use DiskGenius to install rEFInd Plus and OpenCore to the EFI and bless it with CMD. If all fails, I have working Windows to game on and can continue to work at getting a boot screen.

I use rEFInd Plus on my cMP 5,1 to turn on the screen for my rx 480/580. Then chain load into OpenCore. This may be the way to go here too. On the rEFInd Plus page there's a very handy link that is called MyBootMgr. It does all of the EFI installation work for you, and if you do it correctly it will ask what GPU you have in order to inject whatever it takes to turn the screen on. This is how I got both my rx 480 and 580 working on the cMP.

GitHub - dakanji/RefindPlus: A Boot Manager for Mac and PC

A Boot Manager for Mac and PC. Contribute to dakanji/RefindPlus development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[marvin_95l]

It works ! 😱

I bought a NVIDIA Quadro K3000M with the following details on ebay:
- Dell VBios Version 80.04.5A.00.01
- GPU: N14E-Q1-A2
- VRAM: Hynix H5GQ1H24BFR T2C

Before I started, I made a backup of all data and created a Windows 7 Bootcamp partition with NVflash and Teamviewer on it. I set Windows 7 as the startup volume.

I removed the old graphics card, adjusted the heat sink, applied new thermal pads and thermal paste and reassembled it. The X-Bracket from the old card fitted the new one without any further adjustments. I glued the ODD sensor to the X-Bracket so that the temperature control works halfway without any Fan Control App. I still want to use Macs Fan Control in MacOS.

When started for the first time, the screen stayed black. I tried to access the iMac with Teamviewer on my Macbook ... It worked, but NVflash did not work because Windows did not recognize the graphics card. Then I came up with the idea of installing the driver for the Quadro K3000M. After doing that I restarted and the picture came up. I was able to flash the card directly on the iMac via Windows.

I took the VBios from @stephle

After restarting, I saw bootscreen!
In High Sierra, the brightness control worked, but the screen was too dark. Inserting the "ApplebacklightFixup.kext" via Kext Utility 2.6.6 fixed the problem immediately.

Now the card works just as well as the old one, even the target display mode works perfectly.

Of course I wanted macOS Big Sur on my iMac. So I installed it with Opencore and it works without any adjustments or problems! Love It !!

Thanks to @stephle for the great Vbios and everyone else who is doing this fantastic job here to keep the old iMac´s alive! 🥳

 

[Need A Geek]

** NVIDIA Geforce GTX880M Mac Edition ROM **
** NVIDIA Geforce GTX870M Mac Edition ROM **
** NVIDIA Geforce GTX860M Mac Edition ROM **
Genuine Native Boot Screen & Brightness Control​

View attachment 942200

Pre-installation Requirements:
- 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.
- One of the following GPUs:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M
N15E-GX-A2, MXM-B (3.0)
8GB VRAM

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M
N15E-GT-A2, MXM-B (3.0)
non-functional cards/original_ROMs:
80.04.EF.00.A2 (MSI)
80.04.F7.00.0C (MSI)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M
Kepler (GK104) N15P-GX-B-A2
Base ROMs:
80.04.F5.00.06
80.04.E8.00.0D
80.04.E9.00.03
Maxwell (GM107) N15P-GX-A1? - non-function with MacOS; cannot trust sources with GPU Variant
Base ROMs:
82.07.24.00.19
82.07.34.00.03
82.07.34.00.08
82.07.49.00.05

The GTX880M is the first 8GB VRAM card to work in our machines! I now have as much vram as system ram. I'm happy to report that macOS sees all the ram. It is boosting fully even at base clock speeds. When I purchased this card, the rivets were very long and kept too much of the GPU away from the heatsink surface. It was thermal throttling early as it sensed an overheat situation. When I removed the rivets, and used screws to secure it, I was able to get a much tighter seal and the card boosted properly.

Tested on a 2011 iMac using High Sierra 10.13.6. Please feel free to test on other MacOS versions, I will update this post as necessary with success/failures.

• These ROMs do not require a 3rd party bootloader like OpenCore.
• They will require a modification of the base AppleIntelPanelA/ApplePanels/F10Ta007 brightness stepping.
• The frame-buffer depth issues remains for now, and can be temporarily corrected by entering a sleep cycle.

As previous, these roms should bring back:

⦁ Genuine native brightness control
⦁ Genuine ‘gray’ early-boot screen (stage 1 & 2 progress bar)
⦁ Genuine macOS bootloader compliance

Post-installation Requirements:
Brightness Control Stepping Mod:
-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.

**UPDATE**
9-4-2020: please note the 870M_6GB_UGA.rom is experimental and in testing phases for those interested and have the card.
5-3-2021: I've removed 870M_Clevo_BR.rom because it is not functional and replaced it with GTX870M_V1.rom, appreciate @jimac2011 for testing.

"insanely great!"
-Steve Jobs

View attachment 940773 View attachment 940774

Does this help with heat sink on 880M, I'm getting ready to do this...
Back Ground ...
I have a new, NVIDIA N15E-GX-A2 880M ready to go...
looking for help... keeping my mid 2011 alive..
I did all the back-ground stuff 5 years ago (i.e. ... SSD , 32GB ram, and intel i7 ...
Now the GPU ! (help)

 

[unclemiltie]

I did all the back-ground stuff 5 years ago (i.e. ... SSD , 32GB ram, and intel i7 ...
Now the GPU ! (help)

If you did the CPU upgrade you know how to take the cabinet apart and get the motherboard out, which is the biggest thing for those attempting this.

That video disconnects the wires from the WiFi card , you can just pull the card and let it rest in the fan slot. And you don't need to remove the power supply either.

I took mine apart "standing" instead of lying down.

you do have to grind down the head sink to make it fit the GTX880M. that's described in post 1 and is shown in the video.

You also have the issue with the iMac 12,2 not POSTing with some cards. I have a GTX880 that won't POST in my 12,2. I just got an 11,3 to try it but don't have time. The only thing that happens is that I get one of the LEDs, the fans spin for a couple of seconds and then turn off. since my 6970 had failed I installed a K3100M and it seems to work with the exception of a previously reported issue with sleep and power on after a power failure. (but I'm using it right now to type this message)

Good luck, the people here are great at answering questions and helped me get through some of the more confusing parts.

 

[m0bil]

Thanks! I do plan to flash the bios from @jay508 through the Linux ssh route.

I will probably start with Windows since I know it will automatically load the drivers for me after the GPU swap and flash. I'll install TeamViewer to be sure before swapping the gpu. Then I can use DiskGenius to install rEFInd Plus and OpenCore to the EFI and bless it with CMD. If all fails, I have working Windows to game on and can continue to work at getting a boot screen.

I use rEFInd Plus on my cMP 5,1 to turn on the screen for my rx 480/580. Then chain load into OpenCore. This may be the way to go here too. On the rEFInd Plus page there's a very handy link that is called MyBootMgr. It does all of the EFI installation work for you, and if you do it correctly it will ask what GPU you have in order to inject whatever it takes to turn the screen on. This is how I got both my rx 480 and 580 working on the cMP.

GitHub - dakanji/RefindPlus: A Boot Manager for Mac and PC

A Boot Manager for Mac and PC. Contribute to dakanji/RefindPlus development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

I have collected a couple of vbios from M4000M cards (different from ones posted on techpowerup), one with updated uefi/gop drivers, will post them on the Maxwell GPU thread for reference.

I don't know well how the uefi/gop driver works when using opencore, but I recall board id was changed by @jay508 to ease windows driver install, maybe this can also affect opencore gop driver integration. Also, HP vbios on techpowerup has no uefi/gop driver included.

 

[jay508]

I have collected a couple of vbios from M4000M cards (different from ones posted on techpowerup), one with updated uefi/gop drivers, will post them on the Maxwell GPU thread for reference.

I don't know well how the uefi/gop driver works when using opencore, but I recall board id was changed by @jay508 to ease windows driver install, maybe this can also affect opencore gop driver integration. Also, HP vbios on techpowerup has no uefi/gop driver included.

Changing the VBiOS driver adapter ID will not affect any other VBiOS features either the VBiOS driver adapter IDs of OEMs such as NVIDIA Public Edition, Dell, HP, MSI, Clevo, etc. can be changed to automatically adapt the driver.

VBiOS for other models of NVIDIA graphics cards can also be modified in this way without affecting other functions.

 

[JohnPascololo]

I would like to share my experiences after testing 3 different GTX880M cards in a 12,2:

1. Dead, bought on Ebay Kleinanzeigen, card was causing a short, buyer was nice and gave a refund, still looking into trying a repair at some time, probably related to a broken Mosfet
2. Dead, bought on Ali, was producing artifacts and hung up on boot
3. Working, bought on Ali, same seller, ran GTA 5 very nicely, but major drawbacks being:

• takes over 40 seconds to fire up the display on windows, probably related to BIOS, but research it seems is done on the AMD cards these days, so this is practically not fixable anymore, it did not happen with a stock Dell bios but this had other disadvantages
• brakes proper sleep/wake in windows and MacOS
• has rendering bugs in some apps on BigSur (this is probably an apple bug)

So all in all, I do not recommend to go for NVidia GTX880M if you want to have a proper dual boot config on an 12,2 iMac because of the issues mentioned above.

I will will return both cards to the seller and hopefully get refunded.

I saw a WX 7100 once, but the price was off the charts…

Currently I am more interested in getting a HP WX 4170 as new, and doing the BIOS chip soldering Mod.

Is there a good german based source for getting the parts, mainly the Bios chip?

Big thanks to all contributing to this great source of information here!

 

[Ausdauersportler]

OpenCore Recovery CD (using a new AMD dGPU)​

Lately we discovered how to create a OpenCore Recovery CD. You can create such a CD in advance or using OLCP even on a different machine even after loosing a working internal OpenCore installation. Follow the guide from this thread (Maintainance->Creating a rescue CD). Follow the instructions to the letter. It needs manual editing of the OCLP generated config.plist file.

To get a valid OpenCore EFI folder I used the 0.4.11 OCLP app. This version supports Monterey perfectly on AMD modded iMacs. You can also copy the existing and working OpenCore installation from your EFI folder.

Because the recovery CD expects to have the boot.efi program located in the EFI/BOOT folder and have a name BOOTx64.efi you need to use manually adapt this using the following steps (possibly it may work with the normal config, too)

1. start the GUI app
2. select 1. Build and Install OpenCore
3. select either Install to drive or View build log
4. You can either open the temporary build folder as shown in the build log or install to a local device mount your EFI partition to access the newly OpenCore build

Move to the installation folder of your OpenCore build, you should see two folders named EFI and System.

Now create manually the EFI/BOOT folder and copy the file System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi into the new EFI/BOOT and rename the file to BOOTx64.efi.

Now use the folder named EFI/BOOT and write it to the CD image, create the CD.

On reboot you can now do a PRAM reset and directly after the chime press and hold C to boot from the CD instead of the internal EFI folder.

Note: A smart choice would be to disable SIP and SBM and enable verbose on this Recovery CD while building the installation. This way you can check what the progress.

Why doing all this?

Now you can survive any corruption of the internal OpenCore configuration because you have a fall back and booting from OpenCore is for AMD users not having an EFI boot screen right now the only way to force a boot selection. On boot press C to boot from the CD and than use the OC boot picker to boot your macOS or Windows installations and fix the internal OpenCore either by using the one from the CD or edit your config manually.

I have already a working OC config, how can I use it?

Alternative: If you have already a working OC config you can mount the EFI volume, create manually the /Volume/EFI/EFI/BOOT folder and copy the file /Volume/EFI/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi and rename it to BOOTx64.efi.

Do I have to create a new CD with every OpenCore updates, again?

No! Only when moving over to Ventura you need a new recovery CD. The older OpenCore will not boot Ventura.

I have multiple different iMacs with AMD dGPU, can I use the same recovery CD?

Difficult to promise in general! When using OCLP to generate the OpenCore these versions are pretty unique to the particular iMac model and you may miss some features booting of a CD. It is worth a try before you start to create a bunch of CDs.

Disclaimer:
I may edit this post and after checking the functionality with more than one iMac I may also add a single prepared ISO image for AMD users.

 

[affer]

forgive me my lazyness.. this is a long thread.. what is your recommendation for a card that is easy to start with and can be used almost out the box from ebay og other used market place.. it should be useable in big sur and in the next mac os update.
buzz words: ease of installation / works relative simple to get started with / effective / cost.
thanks

 

[axrst]

forgive me my lazyness.. this is a long thread.. what is your recommendation for a card that is easy to start with and can be used almost out the box from ebay og other used market place.. it should be useable in big sur and in the next mac os update.
buzz words: ease of installation / works relative simple to get started with / effective / cost.
thanks

On what iMac? 2009 and 2010 27' models have 2 pipe - heatsinks so, if you need the least mods, you need to go for a MXM-A card (look at 1st post for them). In eBay as I know, there are cards for sale already flashed. Or otherways you have to do it yourself. Also next Mac Os (Monterey) needs extra BT - wireless card update to work.
On all 21' iMacs you have to go for MXM-A card, due to power issues. In 2011 27 you have more choices but also may have to do a lot of modifications.

Generaly, all you need is in the 1st post and the procedure is this (as already have mentioned here) :

1. Modify heatsink and have thermal pastes at hand to install gpu. Read all of 1st post once again
2. Carefully disassemble the imac, dont break anything.
3. Install GPU and reassemble everything being careful not to break anything again.
Leave your hard drive disconnected and dont brother installing the lcd panel yet.
4. Insert your bootable Linux flash usb disk into the iMac that you prepared earlier making sure it contains the rom applicable to your new GPU, (you want Linux so you can flash your card).
5. Boot your iMac and check your router for the iMacs local IP address.
6. From your other device, smartphone, tablet, laptop, PC SSH into your iMac, backup the original rom and flash the new rom.
7. When successful plug your HDD back in and reinstall the LCD.
8. Start your iMac if there are issues read post one thoroughly and search this thread as all possible scenarios have been covered multiple times.
9. Update the os with OCLP

 

[jay508]

Is this card an RX460 or a WX4150? It is identified as WX4150 in the Dell M4800 laptop and the GPU-Z information does not show the specific model.
Which model of VBiOS should this use?

 

[affer]

On what iMac? 2009 and 2010 27' models have 2 pipe - heatsinks so, if you need the least mods, you need to go for a MXM-A card (look at 1st post for them). In eBay as I know, there are cards for sale already flashed. Or otherways you have to do it yourself. Also next Mac Os (Monterey) needs extra BT - wireless card update to work.
On all 21' iMacs you have to go for MXM-A card, due to power issues. In 2011 27 you have more choices but also may have to do a lot of modifications.

ofcause, it is a 27" mid 2011 6770m 512MB, your flash guide looks ok simple. i will try look again at 1. post.

 

[dfranetic]

Is this card an RX460 or a WX4150? It is identified as WX4150 in the Dell M4800 laptop and the GPU-Z information does not show the specific model.
Which model of VBiOS should this use?

That's an interesting one. It has pads for those bypassed MOSFETs on the modded HP WX4150 card, but instead of MOSFETs it has jumpers soldered across them. Can you test if it POSTs in an iMac12,2? Or in an iMac12,1?

 

[internetzel]

Is this card an RX460 or a WX4150? It is identified as WX4150 in the Dell M4800 laptop and the GPU-Z information does not show the specific model.
Which model of VBiOS should this use?

RX460 and WX4150 MXM cards should be (almost?) the same thing.
You should check the memory type and report it here.
Chances are good that the latest WX4150 VBIOSes will work.

 

[luke9511]

will the Mid 2011 Radeon HD 6770M Video Card Heatsink fit in a late 2009 27inch imac?

 

[Nekapsule]

Since I have upgraded to Open Core, I have my software from Native Instrument which is always crashing.
I have tried with a fresh install on Catalina and Big Sur and the same thing is happening.

Running Catalina with DosDude patch, the software will run fine.

Here is part of the crash log if someone can help as I wish I don't to downgrade and lose the brightness control with my GTX765M:


Process: Native Access [976]

Application Specific Backtrace 1:
0 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff20488083 __exceptionPreprocess + 242
1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x00007fff201c017c objc_exception_throw + 48
2 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff2050a9a0 -[NSObject(NSObject) __retain_OA] + 0
3 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff203efa67 ___forwarding___ + 1467
4 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff203ef418 _CF_forwarding_prep_0 + 120
5 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff203a5600 CFStringCompareWithOptionsAndLocale + 316
6 Native Access 0x000000010a733329 _ZN2NI2GP11SystemInfo215retrieveGPUInfoEv + 681

I had the same issue with Opencore because I had patched a PCI device via "Device Properties/Add" and replaced the "IOName" property of one of my devices.

After struggling for several weeks and trying about everything to get Native Access to run (I had it running on the exact same machine with Clover), I disassembled the binary and had a look at what "_ZN2NI2GP11SystemInfo215retrieveGPUInfoEv" was doing as it seemed it crashed there.

It turns out, it uses IOKit to go through all your PCI devices, looking at an "IOName" property that contains the "display" value.

It will not stop once it found one, as it might store multiple GPUs in its fingerprint (this is used for activation and tracking I think).

To check IOName's value, it uses the CFStringCompare function, which, as the name suggests, compares strings.
But what if IOName contains something else that a string? Well, you guessed it, it throws an exception, and makes the main thread crash if that exception is not caught.

It turns out, patching a Device Property IOName with Opencore, even when set as a "String" is seen as "Data" in the IORegistry.

If you're not sure what is patched, open IORegistryExplorer and expand the search options panel.

Check "Property Keys".

Then search for "IOName".
(it will also match "IONameMatch" properties so it's a bit tedious as there's a massive number of matching devices)

Go through all of them.
Every time you have an "IOName" property, check the "Type" column. If it's not "String", you have your culprit.

Find what sets that wrong type and change it to the correct type, or disable that patch.
Bonus points if you can tell me how to force Opencore to actually set the property as a String and not Data, even when set to String in config.plist... (maybe that's a bug)

HTH!

 

[maxianraduioan]

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