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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.
streak8047 said:
iMac 2009 27 inch Graphis Card upgrade K2100M was successful ,brightness control working
perfectly with open Legacy Pacher,tested both on Catalina 10.15.7 & BigSur 11.2,after the 11.2 update iMac Stuck after PRAM reset start again ,Only issue was H.264 still Broken.
Click to expand...
There is no H.264 HW support on Late 2009 (and there never was), the CPU simply does not have an HD3000 QuickSync capable iGPU. Unfortunately there is no NVENC, too (Nvidia GPU HW encode support in macOS).

So you have everything you can get from this hardware config running macOS. Using an AMD card is a different story...

You need to play with the latebloom settings in the OCLP (200,40,1) to get around the boot problems with Big Sur 11.2.3+.
 
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Does anyone has Adobe creative cloud with an iMac 2011 with nvidia k2100m? Does it work? I read something about compability issues with Adobe Photoshop and the k2100m, but on windows…
 
internetzel said:
Here my latest GOP (this means you'll need OpenCore in order to have a boot picker) VBIOSes for all AMD Polaris cards.
Those VBIOSes have been tested for a lot of time now, with the exception of the VRAM configurations, which appeared only recently and were collected by @Ausdauersportler and @edwardgeo. (That means that effectively only the WX4130 and RX480 VBIOSes have been tested in their final state!)
They should allow for proper boosting and throttling, before and after sleep, as well as in Windows. However, boosting and throttling may behave differently after the first time waking your iMac from sleep.

The WX4130 and both WX4150 types differ in VRAM configuration only. Shaders are unlocked on the WX4130 so it should perform the same as the WX4150.

The WX4170 VBIOSes differ from the WX4150 ones only in terms of higher GPU clock - but the WX4170 has more shaders available in hardware, so you may use the WX4150 VBIOSes on your WX4170 if you want it to stay cooler (you'll not loose the additional shaders).

The _ALT_VRAM variants have the VRAM configuration from the VBIOS provided by @edwardgeo - you should try those if you experience issues with the "normal" one.

Please report your experiences with the attached VBIOSes!
For an official release we should sort out whether or not we need both VRAM configurations for the WX4150 and WX4170.
Click to expand...

Just flashed my WX4150 (blue HP card of board ID 109-C98581-10_02 is the former RX560) with the new WX4150_GOP.rom above. Working great with sleep/wake, Big Sur 11.5.2 OCLP 0.2.5 with LateBloom. Valley 1080P medium score 1500 same as before with previous Dell_RX560_4GB.rom. Istat menus reports 1.05Ghz core and 1.50 memory clocks running valley, temp steady around 72C. Throttles back down to 300/300 45C while idling on desktop. About this Mac reports as Radeon Polaris 4GB now vs. RX460 4GB before. Thanks internetzel for the great work on these new VBIOSes!

I used Ausdauersportler flash procedure to perform the flash and was successful, thanks to that. Always a little scary though whenever flashing GPU and have to hold my breath on the reboot until the open core boot picker turns the monitor back on, whew no black screen this time thank God!

System: 2010 iMac 11,3 i7 870, 16 GB
 
Last edited:
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I’ll go slightly off topic but my iMac mid 2011 has 14 gb ram (1066mhz) . Last week i replaced gpu and for now it works like a charm. Do you suggest to upgrade rams too? Actually I’m stick on Catalina . Many thanks
 
Hi, guys great topic, a lot of interesting stuff happening here!
But im a bit lost with all this info.

Can you please help me with your opinion.

1. So, as I understand if I chose to go the Nvidia way, I will lose some hardware acceleration? And it doesn't matter which Nvidia card I choose? What exactly will be working worse, if I for instance choose the quadro k3000?

2. As I see, now people really started to go the AMD way, because the card is much newer, it will have all acceleration support and etc, but I can't seem to find any cheap options, for example wx4150 is around 200 bucks... looks a bit overpriced.
What is a good price for this card?

3. What is the cheapest Gpu, that will work vanilla in my iMac 2010 27? I mean everything will work without any patches like OC, with the boot screen and etc, is there even such a card?

4. Found a cheap firepro 6100 locally.
I searched through this topic, but only a few people stated that it actually worked.
So, will this card work, without the boot screen, but with hardware acceleration in Mojave, or Catalina?
That way I can use my mac, before I receive a new card.
 
ailik said:
Hi, guys great topic, a lot of interesting stuff happening here!
But im a bit lost with all this info.

Can you please help me with your opinion.

1. So, as I understand if I chose to go the Nvidia way, I will lose some hardware acceleration? And it doesn't matter which Nvidia card I choose? What exactly will be working worse, if I for instance choose the quadro k3000?
Click to expand...
Your iMac 2010 has no SandyBridge CPU, so no QuickSync support, you cannot loose what you do not have.
ailik said:
2. As I see, now people really started to go the AMD way, because the card is much newer, it will have all acceleration support and etc, but I can't seem to find any cheap options, for example wx4150 is around 200 bucks... looks a bit overpriced.
What is a good price for this card?
Click to expand...
Ask eBay and AliExpress - the market decided about a good price. When we add an new card to the list of supported ones it takes some days or weeks and prices rise. Mostly because people ask sellers if this card is surely working in and Apple iMac: You said Apple, the seller understands $$$.
ailik said:
3. What is the cheapest Gpu, that will work vanilla in my iMac 2010 27? I mean everything will work without any patches like OC, with the boot screen and etc, is there even such a card?
Click to expand...
Likely the K610M.
ailik said:
4. Found a cheap firepro 6100 locally.
I searched through this topic, but only a few people stated that it actually worked.
So, will this card work, without the boot screen, but with hardware acceleration in Mojave, or Catalina?
Click to expand...
This is an open topic. Literally no one is willing to experiment and spend money on a card not known to work properly (Why are you asking?). And so we have to assume the worst, no POST, no BOOT, no sleep/wake, everything you can read from the Hackintosh world when these guys try to get a normal PC running with macOS. And the next upgrade can break everything you fixed, again.
ailik said:
That way I can use my mac, before I receive a new card.
Click to expand...
 
Thnx for your reply.

Ausdauersportler said:
Your iMac 2010 has no SandyBridge CPU, so no QuickSync support, you cannot loose what you do not have.
Click to expand...

So, if I install quadro k3000m, it will work with its full potential on my 2010 iMac?

Ausdauersportler said:
Ask eBay and AliExpress - the market decided about a good price. When we add an new card to the list of supported ones it takes some days or weeks and prices rise. Mostly because people ask sellers if this card is surely working in and Apple iMac: You said Apple, the seller understands $$$.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but is 200$ a lot? Or its the current price people pay for wx4150 at the moment?

Ausdauersportler said:
Likely the K610M.
Click to expand...

But still, it need opencore, to work properly?

Ausdauersportler said:
This is an open topic. Literally no one is willing to experiment and spend money on a card not known to work properly (Why are you asking?). And so we have to assume the worst, no POST, no BOOT, no sleep/wake, everything you can read from the Hackintosh world when these guys try to get a normal PC running with macOS. And the next upgrade can break everything you fixed, again.
Click to expand...
I see, looks like firepro 6100 is no go then... I just thought, that if this gpu at least works fine in the os, I can use it this month, until I receive my new card. Its only 30$, and I can buy it today.
 
ailik said:
Thnx for your reply.


So, if I install quadro k3000m, it will work with its full potential on my 2010 iMac?
Click to expand...
Likely!
ailik said:
Yeah, but is 200$ a lot? Or its the current price people pay for wx4150 at the moment?
Click to expand...
Prices of industrial goods are created by customer demand, only.
ailik said:
But still, it need opencore, to work properly?
Click to expand...
You will need opencore anyway to move to Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur…. (OCLP)
ailik said:
I see, looks like firepro 6100 is no go then... I just thought, that if this gpu at least works fine in the os, I can use it this month, until I receive my new card. Its only 30$, and I can buy it today.
Click to expand...
If you can afford a loss of time and want some fun and uncertainty in your live get the card and start experimenting on it.
 
Ausdauersportler said:
You will need opencore anyway to move to Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur…. (OCLP)
Click to expand...

So theres no card at all, that will work vanilla, without open core and etc at the moment?
Ausdauersportler said:
If you can afford a loss of time and want some fun and uncertainty in your live get the card and start experimenting on it.
Click to expand...
I see, well ill think about it then)
But most likely wait for the quadro card, then.

Thnx, a lot for your replies.
 
ailik said:
So theres no card at all, that will work vanilla, without open core and etc at the moment?
Click to expand...
Wrong, please read the first post!
ailik said:
I see, well ill think about it then)
But most likely wait for the quadro card, then.

Thnx, a lot for your replies.
Click to expand...
You are welcome!

P.S.:
There is no better option to update your iMac11,3 to a macOS past High Sierra than OCLP!
 
There are cards that work if you want to stick the the highest supported OS (e.g. High Sierra on my Mid 2011 iMac) and you can get them working right out of the box assuming that they come pre-flashed with the right BIOS. If you look at the first post and the list of cards you can find one that will have native boot picker support and native brightness control (although some not full-range) without changing anything.

For example, I bought a K3100M pre-flashed and installed it in my iMac. had the seller not flashed the wrong BIOS on it, the card would have worked right out of the envelope. (I figured out how to flash the correct BIOS and I type this message to you from that machine)

I do have some issues, although I'm not sure if it's related to the card or something else. BUt I've not had time to play with it to try to figure it out (the system won't return from sleep and if the power goes off it takes a few dozen button presses to POST)
 
Jforte said:
Does anyone has Adobe creative cloud with an iMac 2011 with nvidia k2100m? Does it work? I read something about compability issues with Adobe Photoshop and the k2100m, but on windows…
Click to expand...

Yes I have iMac 2011 with k2100m and Adobe CC 2020. Works perfectly. Using High Sierra. Haven't tried Windows 10.
 
Ok. silly question.

I'm in the middle of flashing my K2100M (notice the "M) on my 12,2 27" iMac mid-2011 and according to the @The_Croupier link found on post #4363 I have these ROMS (screenshot below). Have I downloaded an older build or do I use the K2100.rom??


root@grml / # find / -type f -name "*.rom"
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K5000M_UGA.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K2000.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K3100M_BFR.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K4100M_UGA.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K2100.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K3100M_AFR.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K5100M_UGA.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K1000.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/k5000mUGA_S.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K4100M_BR.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K4000M_UGA.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K610M_EG2.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K1100.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/AMD/560X_OC.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/AMD/580X_SAFE.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/AMD/580X_OC.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/GTX/880M_BR.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/GTX/870M_Clevo_BR.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/GTX/860M_2GB_UGA.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/GTX/870M_6GB_UGA.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/Backups/Original_Vbios.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K5000M_UGA.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K2000.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K3100M_BFR.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K4100M_UGA.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K2100.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K3100M_AFR.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K5100M_UGA.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K1000.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/k5000mUGA_S.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K4100M_BR.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K4000M_UGA.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K610M_EG2.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K1100.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/AMD/560X_OC.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/AMD/580X_SAFE.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/AMD/580X_OC.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/GTX/880M_BR.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/GTX/870M_Clevo_BR.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/GTX/860M_2GB_UGA.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/GTX/870M_6GB_UGA.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/Backups/Original_Vbios.rom


2011 27" iMac A1312, i5-2400, K2100M High Sierra 10.13.6
 

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I guys, I saw some posts that you have this adapter working. I tried two if them with different nvidia quadro M cards in generic skylake PC and video card not detected at all. Adapter have 3 red leds (signed as 3.3v 5v 12v) on and video chip itself starting to heat. Hovewer PCIe device not detected at all, I can't see it in windows or linux using tools like lspci and hwinfo. I tried to enable "Above 4G Decoding" but nothing chaged. Only one picture where it is working is aliexpress ad and I see that its leds are green and AMD card installed (it has warning sign on it but at least it is detected). Is it possible that AMD card had different pinout than nvidia card? Do I need specal MXM support bios? I thought MXM is just a physical standard of PCIe?
 

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Good morning and thanks to all those who helped me with the k610 everything was perfect. Now I have a new question, my brother has decided to take this k5000m P2051 and remove the Hd4850 being an imac 27 2009 it still has the 512 mb one. the card would be used to use archicad. Can I order it? is the model compatible? thanks a lot
 

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Stefanox2410 said:
Good morning and thanks to all those who helped me with the k610 everything was perfect. Now I have a new question, my brother has decided to take this k5000m P2051 and remove the Hd4850 being an imac 27 2009 it still has the 512 mb one. the card would be used to use archicad. Can I order it? is the model compatible? thanks a lot
Click to expand...
Read post 1 again. You'll have to get the big, 3 pipe heatsink and file some sections to clear the space for some on-card inductors. (Still, no warranty it will work with those 'high power' NVIDIA GPUs. That, by the way, is also in post 1.)
 
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dfranetic said:
Read post 1 again. You'll have to get the big, 3 pipe heatsink and file some sections to clear the space for some on-card inductors. (Still, no warranty it will work with those 'high power' NVIDIA GPUs. That, by the way, is also in post 1.)
Click to expand...
would it be the 2011 heatsink? that 2009(I would have filed the protruding parts) and 2010 are not good I understand right?
 
jMack5 said:
Ok. silly question.

I'm in the middle of flashing my K2100M (notice the "M) on my 12,2 27" iMac mid-2011 and according to the @The_Croupier link found on post #4363 I have these ROMS (screenshot below). Have I downloaded an older build or do I use the K2100.rom??


root@grml / # find / -type f -name "*.rom"
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K5000M_UGA.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K2000.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K3100M_BFR.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K4100M_UGA.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K2100.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K3100M_AFR.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K5100M_UGA.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K1000.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/k5000mUGA_S.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K4100M_BR.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K4000M_UGA.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K610M_EG2.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K1100.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/AMD/560X_OC.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/AMD/580X_SAFE.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/AMD/580X_OC.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/GTX/880M_BR.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/GTX/870M_Clevo_BR.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/GTX/860M_2GB_UGA.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/GTX/870M_6GB_UGA.rom
/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb2/flash/Backups/Original_Vbios.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K5000M_UGA.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K2000.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K3100M_BFR.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K4100M_UGA.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K2100.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K3100M_AFR.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K5100M_UGA.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K1000.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/k5000mUGA_S.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K4100M_BR.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K4000M_UGA.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K610M_EG2.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/QUADRO/K1100.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/AMD/560X_OC.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/AMD/580X_SAFE.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/AMD/580X_OC.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/GTX/880M_BR.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/GTX/870M_Clevo_BR.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/GTX/860M_2GB_UGA.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/GTX/870M_6GB_UGA.rom
/run/live/persistence/sdb2/flash/Backups/Original_Vbios.rom


2011 27" iMac A1312, i5-2400, K2100M High Sierra 10.13.6
Click to expand...
Well, I was able to get some help from someone else on this forum who said that as long as the chip on my video card is an N15P-Q3-A1 (on-chip) I should be good to use the K2100.rom, rom.
 
Jforte said:
Does anyone has Adobe creative cloud with an iMac 2011 with nvidia k2100m? Does it work? I read something about compability issues with Adobe Photoshop and the k2100m, but on windows…
Click to expand...
I got adobe CC 2020 iMac 27" 2011 - k2100m and high sierra > perfectly works , don't have windows
 
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Problem
I just completed flashing my K2100M using the USB Stick Method by Curtis Gross on my mid-2011 iMac 27" (12,2).
After resetting my PRAM and rebooting a few times, I still cannot get audio to work. It shows in System report: Aggregate Device

No Apple CHIME at boot
No audio once loaded.

Might I have missed a cable or three on the MOBO on install?
 
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