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

[natus.w]

Hi everyone,

my iMac 27 2009 late Mac 11,1 with Radeon HD 4850 is died.

so I bought a 765m from eBay (the card had bios flash already by Nick[D]vb )for replacement, but I have a couple issues:

first the heat sink don’t fit flush, two coil are touching the upper edge of the heat sink. So does it mean that I have to hack it off to make clearance?

second it can boot to high Sierra but it will randomly restart after 5 minutes of used. So it’s any driver problem or the card is overheating (in Mac fan control can't read die temp)? Or I did something wrong in the process?

If you look at the first post, you'll see that the 765M uses the MXM-B format, which is not compatible with your 11,1's original heatsink (only a 2-pipe, which is not enough for the 765M due to its 75W TDP). You may have to swap it with the beefier 3-pipe heatsink from the 2011 model (check eBay).

Even then, you may have to file down some of the heatsink to clear the card, video here shows a concise illustration of how much needs to be filed down:

You will also have to install CrystalIdea's MacsFanControl app as there is no way for the card to communicate with MacOS regarding temperature (the ODD fan will have to be set to ramp up with the temperature, if you want cooler temps you can remove disc drive and seal up the slot with some tape.)

 

[ReallyLongLogin]

You should try all different versions of the WX4150 VBIOSes. New ones were uploaded recently - so if you downloaded some weeks ago, please recheck the links in post#1.

Thanks @internetzel. The latest GPU ROM solved it.

Success with a mid 2010 27" upgrading to WX4150 (Dell) (copper plate mod + ghetto hacker electrical tape to prevent shorting), i7, Big Sur via OCLP (Wifi is working but BT is not).

The latest GPU ROM works fine for me. Brightness control working and open core boot picker.

GPU seems a little hot during Unigine testing at maxed at 63 deg C (Mac Fan Control target 55 deg C).

Some benchmark screenshots attached.

Super grateful to the community here.

 

[internetzel]

Thanks @internetzel. The latest GPU ROM solved it.

Success with a mid 2010 27" upgrading to WX4150 (Dell) (copper plate mod + ghetto hacker electrical tape to prevent shorting), i7, Big Sur via OCLP (Wifi is working but BT is not).

The latest GPU ROM works fine for me. Brightness control working and open core boot picker.

GPU seems a little hot during Unigine testing at maxed at 63 deg C (Mac Fan Control target 55 deg C).

Some benchmark screenshots attached.

Super grateful to the community here.

That's great - but please tell exactly which of the files you used (the "_ALT_VRAM" one or the one without that postfix), so we eventually can provide one single file in the future.

Regarding the high temperatures, in case you used a WX4150 VBIOS, and not a WX4170 one (which sets higher GPU core clocks), you should recheck the heat sink installation very carefully.

 

[ReallyLongLogin]

That's great - but please tell exactly which of the files you used (the "_ALT_VRAM" one or the one without that postfix), so we eventually can provide one single file in the future.

Regarding the high temperatures, in case you used a WX4150 VBIOS, and not a WX4170 one (which sets higher GPU core clocks), you should recheck the heat sink installation very carefully.

Hi @internetzel - I used the latest WX4150_GOP.ROM linked to from post #1. I would welcome the opportunity to contribute back here, so please let me know any testing/info that's useful (and doesn't require Jedi skills).

 

[internetzel]

Hi @internetzel - I used the latest WX4150_GOP.ROM linked to from post #1. I would welcome the opportunity to contribute back here, so please let me know any testing/info that's useful (and doesn't require Jedi skills).

Thanks for the info - you could indeed check whether the WX4150_GOP_ALT_VRAM.ROM does also work with your card.

 

[Jazzandmac]

Hi Guys

It's been nearly a year since i did the gpu swap for a gtx 780 in my mid 2011 imac. Running Catalina and everything works just flawlessly. I bought my machine on a budget and use it to edit 1080p (and even some 4K) footage in Davinci Resolve. No issues!

A big thanks to all the contributors for extending the life of something they call obsolete in other parts of the world. You know who you are. Your actions is what makes the future look less grimm... Cheerrrs!

NC

 

[ReallyLongLogin]

Thanks for the info - you could indeed check whether the WX4150_GOP_ALT_VRAM.ROM does also work with your card.

Hi @internetzel - I used WX4150_GOP_ALT_VRAM.ROM from post #13,624 and the display goes black during apple logo and progress bar. Can't connect to it via screensharing from the other Mac too. Let me know where to from here.

 

[dfranetic]

Hi @internetzel - I used WX4150_GOP_ALT_VRAM.ROM and the display goes black during apple logo and progress bar. Can't connect to it via screensharing from the other Mac too. Let me know where to from here.

Where do you have OCLP installed? If it is on the EFI partition of your internal drive, you can try a PRAM reset - iMac will find that EFI and show the OpenCore picker. (I too experienced such behavior while switching those exact VBIOSes - a PRAM reset solved that in my case.) Otherwise, flashing back to the non-_ALT_VRAM variant should restore normal boot.

Do have another look at your GPU heatsink installation - temperature difference between GPU heatsink and GPU die should be less than 5ºC, it is almost 10ºC in your case.

 

[ReallyLongLogin]

Hi @internetzel - I used WX4150_GOP_ALT_VRAM.ROM from post #13,624 and the display goes black during apple logo and progress bar. Can't connect to it via screensharing from the other Mac too. Let me know where to from here.

Where do you have OCLP installed? If it is on the EFI partition of your internal drive, you can try a PRAM reset - iMac will find that EFI and show the OpenCore picker. (I too experienced such behavior while switching those exact VBIOSes - a PRAM reset solved that in my case.) Otherwise, flashing back to the non-_ALT_VRAM variant should restore normal boot.

Do have another look at your GPU heatsink installation - temperature difference between GPU heatsink and GPU die should be less than 5ºC, it is almost 10ºC in your case.

Hi @dfranetic and @internetzel - Pram reset didn't help the black screen issue. Successfully reverted to WX4150_GOP.ROM. Will attempt with the _ALT_VRAM ROM again at a later time.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi @dfranetic and @internetzel - Pram reset didn't help the black screen issue. Successfully reverted to WX4150_GOP.ROM. Will attempt with the _ALT_VRAM ROM again at a later time.

Happy to hear that you were able to get out of this easily. I guess there will be no gain to explore the _ALT_VRAM on your card, again.

My experiences are simply the same: If a VRAM config does not fit you get either a black screen after the macOS boot switches over to graphics mode or in really rare cases you experience artefacts.

 

[internetzel]

Hi @dfranetic and @internetzel - Pram reset didn't help the black screen issue. Successfully reverted to WX4150_GOP.ROM. Will attempt with the _ALT_VRAM ROM again at a later time.

Happy to hear that you were able to get out of this easily. I guess there will be no gain to explore the _ALT_VRAM on your card, again.

My experiences are simply the same: If a VRAM config does not fit you get either a black screen after the macOS boot switches over to graphics mode or in really rare cases you experience artefacts.

Of course, there's no point in trying the _ALT_VRAM ROM again.
But your test showed that we need both ROMs - most cards work with both VBIOSes, but there are cards that only work with one of them.

 

[G3llings]

I know this may be a long shot, but I have a favor to ask. As some of you have already guessed, I am trying to find a hardware mod for the VER:1.0 WX7100 and/or V1.0 RX480, which would make these cards POST and run in 27' 2011 iMacs. This time I only have a single (non-POSTing) RX480 and images of VER:1.1 WX7100 (but no actual POSTing cards) to compare. Before making changes (and possibly destroying the RX480 in my hands), I'd prefer to know the values of certain 0201-sized resistors (which V1.0 cards lack).

So does anybody have a VER:1.1 WX7100 'lying around' (ie. possibly not mounted into an iMac)? If so, would you be so kind and use a multimeter to measure the resistances of 6 0201-sized SMD resistors - circled in blue rectangles in attached pictures (3 on top layer, 3 on bottom layer)? I (and perhaps others) will be eternally grateful.

Any chance that RefindPlus could get it to post? I use an rx480 in my Mac Pro 5,1 with RefindPlus which allows for reloading GOP and some other fixes. If it works for a 2010 Mac Pro, it should work for an iMac, right? I'm wondering if there's any crossover testing between Mac Pro and iMacs or if the forums just stay separate. Planning to try RefindPlus on my iMac with m4000m as soon as I get time to swap the card in.

 

[dfranetic]

Any chance that RefindPlus could get it to post? I use an rx480 in my Mac Pro 5,1 with RefindPlus which allows for reloading GOP and some other fixes. If it works for a 2010 Mac Pro, it should work for an iMac, right? I'm wondering if there's any crossover testing between Mac Pro and iMacs or if the forums just stay separate. Planning to try RefindPlus on my iMac with m4000m as soon as I get time to swap the card in.

Unfortunately, no. This is a particular problem we are facing with some AMD cards and 2011 iMacs. Usually there is a short fan spin after the press of the power button, but just LED1 remains lit - the system doesn't even chime, so it doesn't even start reading from the boot drive. (We did find certain hardware mods for some other AMD cards which will let the system chime and boot - and those cards are running perfectly this way as far as I can tell.)

 

[Climber_FX]

Mine old machine, an iMac 2011, that i use until 5 months ago, when i bought an new one, is running on a 6970M with 2gb. This machine hold been my horse power for 10 years, and burned more than 5 GPU's, the first 3 of then I have it changed by the local Apple authorized repair center. But after it was deprecated (vintage), i manage to fix the last one 3 or 4 times doing the heat treatment on it. But the last time, i couldn't resurrect it and i have the lucky that a friend gave me one that was his spare GPU (the actual one, 6970m with 2gb (and his job is audio, so, he won't burn GPU's like me, rrsrsrsrsrssr). Now that machine is my second one. That last GPU was a little problem, when it goes above certain temperature, it automatically reboot the machine. I prefer it is like that, so it avoid burn like the old ones, and for the second machine, hardly get that hot again.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

hi everyone, I bought a k610m 1gb with bios nikey22, I installed it on an imac 27-2009. at startup nothing is visible. if I turn it on I take shift at the start it can be seen and it goes without graphic drivers I think doing stripes, should I flash the firmware? I don't know how to do it. this and what you see in safe mode I see it recognizes it though[ATTACH

Read post #1 again, for at least 5 times, and all the useful links from there.
It's updated from time to time.

 

[foen]

Hello everyone, i finally swap for a k3100. High sierra run great with patch for brighness control. Which are best OS for my mac ? I prefer use gpu acceleration for graphics. So catalina ? Thank you again for this wonderful thread

 

[marvin_95l]

Hello,

I use a Quadro K3000M with the VBIOS from ST3PHL3.
I have an Issue with the Target Display Mode. Over Display Port i use a Windows PC on my iMac 27" Mid 2010. When I turn the PC on, the screen switches automatically to the Windows PC and when i turn it off, it switches back to High Sierra on my iMac.

But if I want to use the key combination "cmd + f2" it doesn't work to switch the screen between the systems.

Does anyone know a solution?

 

[Stefanox2410]

hi everyone, I bought a k610m 1gb with bios nikey22, I installed it on an imac 27-2009. at startup nothing is visible. if I turn it on I take shift at the start it can be seen and it goes without graphic drivers I think doing stripes, should I flash the firmware? I don't know how to do it. this and what you see in safe mode I see it recognizes it thoughView attachment 1822861

hi everyone, I bought a k610m 1gb with bios nikey22, I installed it on an imac 27-2009. at startup nothing is visible. if I turn it on I take shift at the start it can be seen and it goes without graphic drivers I think doing stripes, should I flash the firmware? I don't know how to do it. this and what you see in safe mode I see it recognizes it thoughView attachment 1822861

Help me please

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Help me please

Check the very first post of the thread and search for the black screen issue there. One can search this thread, too

 

[Stefanox2410]

Check the very first post of the thread and search for the black screen issue there. One can search this thread, too

i searched everywhere but i could not find anything that could help me, i don't know what it could be, i could try flashing another bios of the card, but how do you do it?

 

[Stefanox2410]

i searched everywhere but i could not find anything that could help me, i don't know what it could be, i could try flashing another bios of the card, but how do you do it?

the only thing that comes to my mind that I can ask if you don't know how to help me would be to try to flash the firmware again, what is the exact one for the k610m?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

the only thing that comes to my mind that I can ask if you don't know how to help me would be to try to flash the firmware again, what is the exact one for the k610m?

The only thing that come to my mind that you haven't read post #1 carefully enough to understand it.
What do you expect flashing the vBIOS would held you improve your situation?
Your K610m would act like a native supported card with all funtions?
No, it wouldn't.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Hello,

I use a Quadro K3000M with the VBIOS from ST3PHL3.
I have an Issue with the Target Display Mode. Over Display Port i use a Windows PC on my iMac 27" Mid 2010. When I turn the PC on, the screen switches automatically to the Windows PC and when i turn it off, it switches back to High Sierra on my iMac.

But if I want to use the key combination "cmd + f2" it doesn't work to switch the screen between the systems.

Does anyone know a solution?

In my case, (Windows PC have 2 monitors, a Dell and an iMac 2010)
I put both machines to sleep, then wake the Windows machine first. It could only wake the Dell.
After a while, I wake my iMac. The iMac will display HS.
If I put Windows to sleep and wake it up again, iMac will be TDM.

 

[natus.w]

Hello everyone, i finally swap for a k3100. High sierra run great with patch for brighness control. Which are best OS for my mac ? I prefer use gpu acceleration for graphics. So catalina ? Thank you again for this wonderful thread

What sort of workloads will you do on your machine? (Catalina and later is possible, but you will only have basic Metal support with your Kepler card, may not be suitable for some applications)

 

[marvin_95l]

In my case, (Windows PC have 2 monitors, a Dell and an iMac 2010)
I put both machines to sleep, then wake the Windows machine first. It could only wake the Dell.
After a while, I wake my iMac. The iMac will display HS.
If I put Windows to sleep and wake it up again, iMac will be TDM.

It's roughly the same with my iMac. So it's not a software problem, but rather a problem with the new graphics cards themselves? But why doesn't the key combination work? With my old HD5750 the TDM ran without problems with "cmd + f2".