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

[The_Croupier]

Hi Guys,
So I install new video card(Nvidia K3000m) on my iMac(mid 2011, 27 inch, intel Core i5, macOS Catalina), and now I encountered some serious issue that it won't even turn on when hit power bottom(Literally nothing work, only one LED indicator light on), but it will turn on and successfully boot into system once I remove BT/Camera cable, naturally I won't be able to use any Bluetooth product, so I figure it out a way to make it work by plug BT/Camera cable in after it successfully boot into system, which is totally dangerous(my finger was so close to power supply board), then everything work fine until I power off, same problem happened again that I'm unable to turn it on, so I was wondering has anyone have same problem or aware what kind of problem my iMac had right now ?

Please Help

You may have bent pins in the connector socket for the iCam/Bluetooth cable causing a short, check with a magnifying glass.

 

[knortn]

Hello everyone. I bought a GTX 880m on Ebay for a few bucks as the previous owner said he couldn't get it to work in his laptop, so I figured I might try and fix it as an upgrade for my 2010 iMac. I received it and found out why it's not working: It can't access its BIOS chip since someone knocked two resistors near the flash chip off the board. Unfortunately I can only guess the correct values for these two resistors. I thought maybe one of you guys has a spare card with a similar layout and could measure these two resistors for me?

Thanks

Edit: I checked some diagrams of other cards and those had 33 Ohm resistors in the path of the SPI bus for the BIOS (one of them was CS#, so the BIOS couldn't get enabled). There were other 33 Ohm resistors in that area, so that reassured my guess. It's working now.

 

[samavl]

If brightness control (I guess this is what you mean as backlight control) works in High Sierra then it should work in OC with Big Sur.

You are doing something wrong.

Because the members here cannot remotely fix your issue it will be your responsibility to read and learn all the necessary information you need to fix the issue yourself.

Good luck 🍀.

The solution in my case was to disable BacklightInjector.kext. Now the brightness control is working!

 

[CY Yong]

Hi, above is my IMac 2011 27-Inch spec.
If I'm plan to upgrade it to big sur, may i know what GPU i should get in order to make it support to run Big Sur smoothly? K2100M? or any other?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

View attachment 1855603

Hi, above is my IMac 2011 27-Inch spec.
If I'm plan to upgrade it to big sur, may i know what GPU i should get in order to make it support to run Big Sur smoothly? K2100M? or any other?

Any GPU listed on the first post has support with macOS Big Sur and is capable to run recent Apple programs.

So it is more a question what kind of applications are you planning to use. If you target on video processing using Final Cut or DaVinci you should use an AMD dGPU, not NVIDIA. If it is web & text processing & other normal use a cheap NVIDIA GPU like the K2100M will perfectly do the Job.

My recommendation is always the same:
Try to get a cheap AMD card. It will be more future proof, has even full support in the upcoming new macOS Monterey.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

The solution in my case was to disable BacklightInjector.kext. Now the brightness control is working!

Just have checked the latest OCLP repository: There is no BacklightInjector.kext in use.

So I assume you put it there additionally?

 

[samavl]

No, I downloaded and installed versions 2.4, 2.5 and even 3.0, but all of them had this error. I assume that after installing the next version of OC LP, the previous version is erased?

 

[CY Yong]

Any GPU listed on the first post has support with macOS Big Sur and is capable to run recent Apple programs.

So it is more a question what kind of applications are you planning to use. If you target on video processing using Final Cut or DaVinci you should use an AMD dGPU, not NVIDIA. If it is web & text processing & other normal use a cheap NVIDIA GPU like the K2100M will perfectly do the Job.

My recommendation is always the same:
Try to get a cheap AMD card. It will be more future proof, has even full support in the upcoming new macOS Monterey.

Thanks for your promp reply.
I use it for normal 2D Adobe illustrator and AutoCad work only.

May i get your advice is K2100M can support it?

 

[samavl]

Any GPU listed on the first post has support with macOS Big Sur and is capable to run recent Apple programs.

So it is more a question what kind of applications are you planning to use. If you target on video processing using Final Cut or DaVinci you should use an AMD dGPU, not NVIDIA. If it is web & text processing & other normal use a cheap NVIDIA GPU like the K2100M will perfectly do the Job.

My recommendation is always the same:
Try to get a cheap AMD card. It will be more future proof, has even full support in the upcoming new macOS Monterey.

Indeed, I didn't notice much acceleration of rendering in FCPX, but when working with 3D fonts, acceleration still takes place - on the stock video card of my iMac 27" 2010, 3D text rotated with a significant delay, and there is no such delay on the K3100M. My question is the following - will the rendering acceleration manifest itself on Catalina? Or maybe it's worth to downgrade from Big Sur to Catalina?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thanks for your promp reply.
I use it for normal 2D Adobe illustrator and AutoCad work only.

May i get your advice is K2100M can support it?

Sorry, no idea. Strictly speaking this neither a support site nor we can assure you of 100% functionality. May other users share their experiences…

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Indeed, I didn't notice much acceleration of rendering in FCPX, but when working with 3D fonts, acceleration still takes place - on the stock video card of my iMac 27" 2010, 3D text rotated with a significant delay, and there is no such delay on the K3100M. My question is the following - will the rendering acceleration manifest itself on Catalina? Or maybe it's worth to downgrade from Big Sur to Catalina?

Same answer, I do not know. The recent versions of FinalCut rely on VideoToolBox support when it comes to hardware acceleration and no NVIDIA GPU made it onto this list (2015+ AMD GPU, only). This API became available with an Mojave update and so I doubt there will be any video processing acceleration with NVIDIA GPU using Mojave or Catalina.

If you go back in time using an old macOS and old apps you may be able to use still some kind of acceleration. There might be an optimal macOS version to be used on Kepler driven iMacs.

Since we have not been able to re enable the HD3000 on Big Sur there is no QuickSync support with any OLCP based installation on iMac 2011 systems so far. If you want to use all features of your system try the complex @dosdude1 method as described in post #1 (or if you are brave and experienced just disable SIP with an OCLP Catalina, try to apply the so called sleep patches to this installation and try to get it work). The OCLP team is currently not interested to expand support to Catalina.

 

[CY Yong]

Sorry, no idea. Strictly speaking this neither a support site nor we can assure you of 100% functionality. May other users share their experiences…

Got that, thanks for your advice again.

 

[CY Yong]

Sorry, no idea. Strictly speaking this neither a support site nor we can assure you of 100% functionality. May other users share their experiences…

Original Dell nVidia Quadro K2100M 2GB Precision M4800 M6800 Video Graphics Card | eBay

Computer & Laptop Cable. Laptop & Desktop Case Cover. It is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to make sure that the item is compatible with your computer/laptop. See What's New. About the Product. When we receive the item, we will test the item and see if it’s in the original condition.

www.ebay.com

I had source K2100M, and all come with different like M4800, M6800 as the link above.
some with the MXM III.

Nvidia Quadro K2100M 2GB GDDR5 MXM III A Laptop Video Card | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Nvidia Quadro K2100M 2GB GDDR5 MXM III A Laptop Video Card at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Sorry may i ask your advice again, which 1 of it can be plug and work in my IMac?
SOrry for asking so many question in such a short time

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Original Dell nVidia Quadro K2100M 2GB Precision M4800 M6800 Video Graphics Card | eBay

Computer & Laptop Cable. Laptop & Desktop Case Cover. It is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to make sure that the item is compatible with your computer/laptop. See What's New. About the Product. When we receive the item, we will test the item and see if it’s in the original condition.

www.ebay.com

I had source K2100M, and all come with different like M4800, M6800 as the link above.
some with the MXM III.

Nvidia Quadro K2100M 2GB GDDR5 MXM III A Laptop Video Card | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Nvidia Quadro K2100M 2GB GDDR5 MXM III A Laptop Video Card at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Sorry may i ask your advice again, which 1 of it can be plug and work in my IMac?
SOrry for asking so many question in such a short time

Sorry, I do not comment on any such offer.

But if you have the chance to get a new and unused spare part - take it. We had so much trouble with old used NVIDIA card, the whole thread is blown up with it.

This is clearly not a plug an play solution at all. Take your time and review the first post of this thread about the complete and complex procedure.

Have fun! It is a rainy Sunday task.

 

[CY Yong]

Sorry, I do not comment on any such offer.

But if you have the chance to get a new and unused spare part - take it. We had so much trouble with old used NVIDIA card, the whole thread is blown up with it.

This is clearly not a plug an play solution at all. Take your time and review the first post of this thread about the complete and complex procedure.

Have fun! It is a rainy Sunday task.

Thanks alot on your help

 

[knortn]

Just have checked the latest OCLP repository: There is no BacklightInjector.kext in use.

So I assume you put it there additionally?

I just installed a nightly build of OCLP.
BacklightInjector.kext is included and it is enabled in the config.plist as well. Disabling it will enable backlight control on Big Sur with my flashed GTX 880m but it will not get to full brightness.

Adding AppleBacklightFixup.kext will restore full backlight brightness on High Sierra but on Big Sur it'll disable backlight control again.

Is there anything I'm missing here?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I just installed a nightly build of OCLP.
BacklightInjector.kext is included and it is enabled in the config.plist as well. Disabling it will enable backlight control on Big Sur with my flashed GTX 880m but it will not get to full brightness.

Adding AppleBacklightFixup.kext will restore full backlight brightness on High Sierra but on Big Sur it'll disable backlight control again.

Is there anything I'm missing here?

You are just missing the debugging session ahead!

Since this has not been a problem in the past we have two possibilities:

1. you found an OCLP bug
2. you found an Apple bug

To debug the first one please just try older releases of OCLP starting with 0.2.4 and go back until 0.1.7 and check if you find fully working version.

If you find a working older OCLP release please open a new issue on the OCLP Github page and describe you observations.

Thanks in advance!

 

[overshoot]

The brightness control depends on the correct OpenCore settings. In case your customer updated to more recent OLCP and Big Sur versions at the same time we might have found the problem.

All older versions of OCLP are still available for download (releases). You might grab the current config.plist files from both machines and compare them or more easy move over the EFI/OC folder from the working one to the broken one and check, again.

And you should install and configure OCLP always on the target machine. Otherwise the hardware detection responsible to identify an NVIDIA GPU could not work and the necessary settings would not be applied to the configuration.

I did install and configure OCLP within Big Sur on the iMac and I understand the reason behind it.

Regarding cloning the OCLP config, I also did that. I even went using "rsync" to sync the EFI partition from the working setup to the non working setup but no cigar.

I am now installing High Sierra and starting over again from scratch.
The firmware version is 87.0.0.0
One thing to note is when I am pressing the Alt key to get the bootscreen menu, I am seeing some "APFS_start" lines which, I believe, were added by the Dosdude firmware patch during the Catalina installation prior to using OCLP.
Could this be interfering with OCLP somehow?
Can I force re-flashing the firmware to its original version?

 

[curioussurfer]

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks for the info. I don't need Airplay, just want to keep target display mode if I can.

The actual problem I'm having is I think something is wrong with my K2100M. I get random kernel panics in Mojave, while High Sierra is completely stable, but sometimes randomly the entire menu bar or some menu bar icons will turn completely black for a few seconds before fixing itself. I'm guessing there is some bad video memory or something. I am totally fine with this, but I wanted to see whether Big Sur would also kernel panic, or whether I need to buy another K2100M.

I got the Big Sur installer from the python script on this page: https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/INSTALLER.html#downloading, and then I ran the createinstallmedia command. It's Big Sur 11.5.2.

First, thanks to everyone helping the community to keep using their iMacs.
Re Airplay and Big Sur: I found a workaround/solution. Use an Apple TV 2 to connect the Music app to. Then you can use a number of Airplay sound devices attached to the the network. In my case a Sonos, a Marantz amplifier and airport express station. All stop working once the Apple TV 2 gets ticked off the device list.
Cheers and thanks again.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I did install and configure OCLP within Big Sur on the iMac and I understand the reason behind it.

Regarding cloning the OCLP config, I also did that. I even went using "rsync" to sync the EFI partition from the working setup to the non working setup but no cigar.

I am now installing High Sierra and starting over again from scratch.
The firmware version is 87.0.0.0
One thing to note is when I am pressing the Alt key to get the bootscreen menu, I am seeing some "APFS_start" lines which, I believe, were added by the Dosdude firmware patch during the Catalina installation prior to using OCLP.
Could this be interfering with OCLP somehow?
Can I force re-flashing the firmware to its original version?

All the iMacs Late 2009 until Mid 2011 where supported with High Sierra and got APFS functionality including in more recent firmware patches. I see these text lines only on systems having more than one disk - possibly the firmware checks for a fusion drive setup?

Normally the iMac firmware gets updated when installing the latest High Sierra updates. So going through this will trigger the update process unless you have already the latest installed - so I doubt you will see a change.

Other users recently observed similar problems with an NVIDIA system using OCLP and Big Sur loosing the brightness control. Just read the last two pages yourself.

It might be a change in most recent Big Sur or a change in most recent OLCP versions - I cannot test it myself.

You can disable the BacklightInjector.kext as mentioned by others. Just open the config.plist and set enabled to false for this particular kernel extension.

Or just check older pre 0.2.4 OCLP versions and report back.

 

[overshoot]

All the iMacs Late 2009 until Mid 2011 where supported with High Sierra and got APFS functionality including in more recent firmware patches. I see these text lines only on systems having more than one disk - possibly the firmware checks for a fusion drive setup?

Normally the iMac firmware gets updated when installing the latest High Sierra updates. So going through this will trigger the update process unless you have already the latest installed - so I doubt you will see a change.

Other users recently observed similar problems with an NVIDIA system using OCLP and Big Sur loosing the brightness control. Just read the last two pages yourself.

It might be a change in most recent Big Sur or a change in most recent OLCP versions - I cannot test it myself.

You can disable the BacklightInjector.kext as mentioned by others. Just open the config.plist and set enabled to false for this particular kernel extension.

Or just check older pre 0.2.4 OCLP versions and report back.

Thanks again for your help so far!
I indeed do have a dual drive in this setup. Thanks for the clarification.

Though, I have installed my WX4170 (I'm starting doubting it's an actual WX4170 now) in this machine for testing purposes. As you know I never had success with it so far.
I've attached a screenshot of the ebay listing to show you what the card looks like.

I just did flash it with the latest Bios found on page 1.
I also did run the Opencore patcher 0.2.4 from Big Sur to detect the card and it's being detected as 1002:67E8 which shows up in google as a WX4130/WX4150, not an WX4170 which was advertised on my eBay listing (please check my screenshot for more details).

Rebooted, cleared the NVRAM from the boot picker and loaded up my Big Sur fresh installation in 11.2.3
At login screen, I'm greeted for a few seconds with a black screen first, then the login prompt comes up.

In system profiler, the card shows up as Radeon Polaris 4GB. Not sure if that's supposed to be.

Running Unigine Heaven, the score is terrible, 331 in High settings.
It can barely sustain a 15FPS... doesn't look right doesn't it?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thanks again for your help so far!
I indeed do have a dual drive in this setup. Thanks for the clarification.

Though, I have installed my WX4170 (I'm starting doubting it's an actual WX4170 now) in this machine for testing purposes. As you know I never had success with it so far.
I've attached a screenshot of the ebay listing to show you what the card looks like.

I just did flash it with the latest Bios found on page 1.
I also did run the Opencore patcher 0.2.4 from Big Sur to detect the card and it's being detected as 1002:67E8 which shows up in google as a WX4130/WX4150, not an WX4170 which was advertised on my eBay listing (please check my screenshot for more details).

Rebooted, cleared the NVRAM from the boot picker and loaded up my Big Sur fresh installation in 11.2.3
At login screen, I'm greeted for a few seconds with a black screen first, then the login prompt comes up.

In system profiler, the card shows up as Radeon Polaris 4GB. Not sure if that's supposed to be.

Running Unigine Heaven, the score is terrible, 331 in High settings.
It can barely sustain a 15FPS... doesn't look right doesn't it?

The vBIOS published on the thread is in fact a modified WX4150 version. The only difference: The GPU core clock has a max value of 1200 MHz instead of 1053MHz with WX4130/WX4150.

Please use the benchmark programs used on the first post to make results comparable - we are using GeekBench, MetalBench or UNIGINE Valley with 1920x1080 settings.

The model name Radeon Polaris 4GB is purely cosmetic, one can change it in the OpenCore. As long as your WX4170 is a full size MXM-B card is will be a real WX4170. Keep in mind that some WX4170 cannot sustain the higher 1200 MHz core clocking and cause crashes once in a while.

So your former problems with this WX41700 card were likely caused by the particular iMac model? You should use this tool to monitor AMD clocking during benchmark. It opens a terminal window and shows the temperature and memory and core clock. Memory should reach up to 1500MHz, core up to 1200MHz.

 

[overshoot]

The vBIOS published on the thread is in fact a modified WX4150 version. The only difference: The GPU core clock has a max value of 1200 MHz instead of 1053MHz with WX4130/WX4150.

Please use the benchmark programs used on the first post to make results comparable - we are using GeekBench, MetalBench or UNIGINE Valley with 1920x1080 settings.

The model name Radeon Polaris 4GB is purely cosmetic, one can change it in the OpenCore. As long as your WX4170 is a full size MXM-B card is will be a real WX4170. Keep in mind that some WX4170 cannot sustain the higher 1200 MHz core clocking and cause crashes once in a while.

So your former problems with this WX41700 card were likely caused by the particular iMac model? You should use this tool to monitor AMD clocking during benchmark. It opens a terminal window and shows the temperature and memory and core clock. Memory should reach up to 1500MHz, core up to 1200MHz.

Well I don't think it was caused by the iMac as I was able to get it running well with a GTX765M in the end and sold it.
It was most likely caused by my setup at the time somehow.

I am now getting 1500 score under Unigine Valley in the mentioned settings.
No crash during the benchmark. I was able to see the memory speed mostly stuck at 1500Mhz and the Core got up to 1200Mhz.

Brightness control with this card is working just fine and I have to see if deep sleep works also.
But it looks like the card is working in the end, right?!

 

[jborko]

Well I don't think it was caused by the iMac as I was able to get it running well with a GTX765M in the end and sold it.
It was most likely caused by my setup at the time somehow.

I am now getting 1500 score under Unigine Valley in the mentioned settings.
No crash during the benchmark. I was able to see the memory speed mostly stuck at 1500Mhz and the Core got up to 1200Mhz.

Brightness control with this card is working just fine and I have to see if deep sleep works also.
But it looks like the card is working in the end, right?!

Proper card installation on the heatsink as well as paste application is critical to good heat dissipation/cooling and stability.

 

[overshoot]

Proper card installation on the heatsink as well as paste application is critical to good heat dissipation/cooling and stability.

Actually that's a good point...
I've noticed that the Fans were all running at their lower speed even though the card was reaching 96 degrees C.

Mac fan control was detecting the temperature as well but the ODD fan never kicked in.
Is it supposed to do that?
Can I fix this under Opencore somehow?

I did install the card with some good thermal past and pads on each RAM module so I should be good with that I guess.

EDIT: Unigine Valley has started crashing already so I don't know what's up with that.