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

[Blif12]

Hello all, i recently upgraded my 2011 27' to a k1100m. Upgraded to Big Sur with OC, and almost all programs are running as they should. The one program that isn't is GIMP (photo editing software). the program opens fine and some tools work, but the lasso/smart select tool does not show my active selection when used. it seems like it is actually functioning, bc when i try to select something and click copy, i can paste the selected image component even though i cannot see exactly what is being selected... Has anybody encountered this before? is there any way to fix it?

Another thing i want to check up on is the temperatures I'm getting with the gpu. I transferred the temp sensor from the ODD to the GPU heatsink, but my stats indicate that the ODD fan is almost always spinning at 1100RPM. Under casual use the Heatsink temps increase to about 54 degrees Celsius and only then do the fans spin a tiny bit faster. the GPU heatsink temperature usually doesn't get much higher after that point. Is this anything to be concerned about? I have some fan control software, but i disabled it, thinking that the system fan control software is adequate. should use that software to keep the system running at a lower temperature or can i leave the SMC to do the job for me here?

Thanks - this forum has been very helpful

 

[jay508]

Model iMac 12, 2 tested ampere mxm-a t1000 ddr6 4g Windows10 no internal screen display are viewed through the remote desktop, the use of dual heat pipe radiator temperature is very ideal power consumption is also very low.
It is a pity that macOS is not supported, Windows10 can play 4k 120fps 5k 60fps. 8k 60fps video mxm-a t1000 is also suitable for 21.5 models

 

[Raza369]

Hey fellas!
I'm just about to repair my 2010 iMac 27" and really would like to get the Quadro K5100 8GB. Did I read it correct that Metal support is dropped for that one. beside that The search revealed that so far there is at least no one in this forum who used that one with the 2010 iMac. So is it even possible?
Best,
Raza369

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Hey fellas!
I'm just about to repair my 2010 iMac 27" and really would like to get the Quadro K5100 8GB. Did I read it correct that Metal support is dropped for that one. beside that The search revealed that so far there is at least no one in this forum who used that one with the 2010 iMac. So is it even possible?
Best,
Raza369

It's depend on what you want to do with your iMac 2010.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hey fellas!
I'm just about to repair my 2010 iMac 27" and really would like to get the Quadro K5100 8GB. Did I read it correct that Metal support is dropped for that one. beside that The search revealed that so far there is at least no one in this forum who used that one with the 2010 iMac. So is it even possible?
Best,
Raza369

Metal support has been dropped with Monterey and needs now to be patched back. If this will work in any case with any application as good as before on Big Sur (unpatched) needs to be seen in future. NVIDIA Kepler Patch support has been including into OCLP 0.3.0.

All NVIDIA card should work in your iMac11,3 Mid 2010 (Big Sur). If you still plan the replacement I would recommend to search and use an AMD card. Is there any reason to use this particular K5100M?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hello all, i recently upgraded my 2011 27' to a k1100m. Upgraded to Big Sur with OC, and almost all programs are running as they should. The one program that isn't is GIMP (photo editing software). the program opens fine and some tools work, but the lasso/smart select tool does not show my active selection when used. it seems like it is actually functioning, bc when i try to select something and click copy, i can paste the selected image component even though i cannot see exactly what is being selected... Has anybody encountered this before? is there any way to fix it?

No! Possibly one could see this on iMac13,x with Nvidia cards, too?

Another thing i want to check up on is the temperatures I'm getting with the gpu. I transferred the temp sensor from the ODD to the GPU heatsink, but my stats indicate that the ODD fan is almost always spinning at 1100RPM. Under casual use the Heatsink temps increase to about 54 degrees Celsius and only then do the fans spin a tiny bit faster. the GPU heatsink temperature usually doesn't get much higher after that point. Is this anything to be concerned about? I have some fan control software, but i disabled it, thinking that the system fan control software is adequate. should use that software to keep the system running at a lower temperature or can i leave the SMC to do the job for me here?

The SMC reacts only on temps above 50C - when using a low power GPU up to 40W like K610M, K1100M, K2100M, AMD WX4130/4150 you barely make it above the 50C. Tested this too days ago on my WX4130 system. Anyway this sensor replacement is a working safety belt when you are using an iMac outside the north of the Northern hemisphere with high (summer) ambient temps.

It would be nice if someone could confirm the normal behaviour using an original ATI Radeon card. I would assume ODD fans will ramp up on GPU die temps above 50C, too. But I am not sure of this.

 

[motorm3]

Hi I have IMac mid 2011 27 i7 2600 quadro k3100m. In displays I have the add display missing. How do I get this.

 

[KennyW]

Hey fellas!
I'm just about to repair my 2010 iMac 27" and really would like to get the Quadro K5100 8GB. Did I read it correct that Metal support is dropped for that one. beside that The search revealed that so far there is at least no one in this forum who used that one with the 2010 iMac. So is it even possible?
Best,
Raza369

I agree with Ausdauersportler. Unless you can have the k5100m free or at a significant discount, you would be better off getting a WX4150 at a similar or often lower price for continued metal compatibility and full support in Big Sur or later, at least by our vBIOS developers, without all the hassles of nVidia cards. Even the WX4130 would be good match for your 10+yrs old iMac.

 

[motorm3]

I agree with Ausdauersportler. Unless you can have the k5100m free or at a significant discount, you would be better off getting a WX4150 at a similar or often lower price for continued metal compatibility and full support in Big Sur or later, at least by our vBIOS developers, without all the hassles of nVidia cards. Even the WX4130 would be good match for your 10+yrs old iMac.

So the wx4150 is a better card than the quadro k3100m

 

[ElCani]

Just wanted to report my success in using one of Nick [D]vB's eBay cards to upgrade my 2011 27" i5 2500S. The card reports as an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX 4 GB in About This Mac but is recognised elsewhere as a K3100m and it performs exactly as that card does in benchmarks. The install was straightforward, although (despite Nick saying that the heatsink did not require modding) the card sat with an approx 1-2mm 'tilt' so I ground off enough of the heatsink to make it sit flat. Everything worked as expected on booting up into High Sierra, except the max brightness was no longer as bright as before. Nick replied promptly to my query and said this was by design to manage temperatures, but he also gave me instructions and resources to 'fix' it should I wish. I did and everything now works as I want it to. I then used OpenCore to upgrade macOS to Big Sur, which went smoothly. All seems well, so far at least!

Anyway, thanks to Nick and all the other dedicated engineers and tinkerers who have given time to extending the lives of these old iMacs, it is much appreciated.

Cheers!

P.S. I upgraded my stock heatsink to the three-pipe version and keep an eye on temperatures with Macs Fan Control.

I've just discovered that since doing my upgrade I've lost my SD card reader and my outermost USB port provides power but seemingly no data. The USB device tree in System Report is missing the Internal Memory Card Reader and the IR Receiver, as seen in the attached screenshots comparing the upgraded 27" with a stock 21.5" 2011. I've opened up the Mac and reseated the relevant connectors but the the problem remains. I'm running Big Sur, but it's also still present when booting into High Sierra.

Has anybody seen anything like this? Did I damage the logic board during the upgrade?

21.5"

27"

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi I have IMac mid 2011 27 i7 2600 quadro k3100m. In displays I have the add display missing. How do I get this.

Install the post install patches with OLCP (option #3). Kepler support has been dropped with Monterey and needs to patched, now.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I've just discovered that since doing my upgrade I've lost my SD card reader and my outermost USB port provides power but seemingly no data. The USB device tree in System Report is missing the Internal Memory Card Reader and the IR Receiver, as seen in the attached screenshots comparing the upgraded 27" with a stock 21.5" 2011. I've opened up the Mac and reseated the relevant connectors but the the problem remains. I'm running Big Sur, but it's also still present when booting into High Sierra.

Has anybody seen anything like this? Did I damage the logic board during the upgrade?

View attachment 1869372
21.5"

View attachment 1869374

27"

Of course it may be a hardware problem.

1.
Try a deep PRAM reset (3x in a row) and SMC reset (disconnect power cable for at least 15s). But I assume you had a lot of such SMC resets during the hardware checks.

2.
Enable remote access in Sharing, pull the NVIDIA GPU from the system and repeat the deep PRAM reset and check you system, again. If your USB ports come back retry everything with the GPU.

If you still face the issue I would say it is another NVIDIA + 2011 incompatibility.

 

[motorm3]

Model iMac 12, 2 tested ampere mxm-a t1000 ddr6 4g Windows10 no internal screen display are viewed through the remote desktop, the use of dual heat pipe radiator temperature is very ideal power consumption is also very low.
It is a pity that macOS is not supported, Windows10 can play 4k 120fps 5k 60fps. 8k 60fps video mxm-a t1000 is also suitable for 21.5 models

So this card won't work in mac os

 

[KennyW]

So the wx4150 is a better card than the quadro k3100m

That would depend on how you define "better".
Consider your own Return-On-Investment with regard to your own use and purpose.
WX4150 is a smaller A size card with less power consumption than the K3100 larger B size card, which needs a 3 pipe-heat sink and can fit only in 27" but not 21" iMac.
Look in the 1st post for the really meaningful Metal score to compare the two in performance.
OpenGL is much depreciated since Catalina ...
Metal support is native by Apple for AMD GPU. nVidia not, if you intend to run the new macOS (but isn't this also one of the main goal to upgrade your GPU?).

 

[motorm3]

So what is the best AMD card upgrade for the iMac mid 2011 27

 

[motorm3]

So what is the best AMD card upgrade for the iMac mid 2011 27

Where do I get the wx4150 or the Wx7100 from.

 

[motorm3]

What do I need to do to the Wx7100 card to get it work with my IMac

 

[jurgenkoppen]

so guys, I have a little gift for you to give back after such an incredible thread
hope you like it, the headaches to get it running were immens for me as a newb.

I couldn't stand it to use fckin windows to flash the cards and so I prepared this ~350mb drive

I created a Linux Live USB (based on grml.org) Thumb Drive with nvflash_linux and Nicks Bioses preloaded. and its booting by itself so you can work blind with a new unpatched nvidia card plugged in. Also, its starting a ssh daemon and using DHCP to get an IP so you can remote login

Steps

Download
14 days left to download, uploaded here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/cztz4xqj2sru9gj/2011_imac_usb.zip/file

mirror by NOTNICE, thnx: https://cloud.notnlce.com/index.php/s/xkJP34GD6a9WziE/download

latest updated Version by @The_Croupier (thnx!) Post: #13,624 > ---- Download here ---- <


Prepare USB Drive or SD Card
so, you take a small usb thumb drive, partition it with disk utility on a Mac: GPT + FAT32
and just unzip the files structure onto the drive, no dd or etcher or something. just copy paste it. folder structure see attached screenshot. (you can remove the .roms I downloaded and download itself if you want to be sure about the correct file size. I did not verify them at all. use/flash at your own risk please)

Test & Try
test your thumb drive with a more or less working GPU/ external Screen or just have faith in me

Swap Hardware
swap your GPU to NVIDIA and (!) disconnect every SSD/HDD, makes it easier to boot blindly from one USB or SD Card, connect the ETH Cable (!), I repeat again and this is not a drill: use Network CABLE only not WIFI « big Nono!

Find IP
let the iMac boot, everything is black, the boot loader is waiting 20s before booting, so give the whole process 1min time, then head over to your Router Page and find the right IP that the iMac got through DHCP

SSH to the iMac
now fire up your terminal on a Win/Mac/Linux Machine of your choice and ssh to your iMac with
ssh root@YOURIP
Password: flash
Confirm the ssh id with yes and you should be in your iMac

Working Directory (in MY release, other or newer releases of GRML use different directories, you have to find out by yourself)
cd /lib/live/mount/medium/flash

read the RADME in there… I will enjoy my brand new k2000m in my 27" 2011 iMac with Catalina 10.15.3
… and because this is so easy, I rebuild it to a K1100M and flashed that also

(someone could write some fancy scripts but I thought its saver that everyone is doing it command by command and don't stop thinking and trusting some scripts)

Hi Xanderson, I am new in the world of flashing but have done other GPU swaps successfully before. I have figured out that your lastest xanderson download allows for the K4100M, it is mentioned in the Quatro folder at least. I am still trying to get my flash drive, (actually it is a regular HDD with SATA-to-USB connector) to behave. When I am testing it,( booting on a working 2011 iMac via option key) the machine does boot up, but instead of loading Linux it shows these lines:
error: no such device: /conf/bootfile_grm164-small_1546178324.
error: unknown file system.
Unknown command 'normal'. E:
Could not find root device (for /conf/bootfile_grm164-small_1546178324)!
error: unknown filesystem.
Entering rescue mode... grub rescue>
Could someone please help me over this hurdle, before I try this on my actual K4100. I do know how to do the hardware part, did GPUs many times before, but this "flashing"is totally new for me...

 

[ElCani]

Of course it may be a hardware problem.

1.
Try a deep PRAM reset (3x in a row) and SMC reset (disconnect power cable for at least 15s). But I assume you had a lot of such SMC resets during the hardware checks.

2.
Enable remote access in Sharing, pull the NVIDIA GPU from the system and repeat the deep PRAM reset and check you system, again. If your USB ports come back retry everything with the GPU.

If you still face the issue I would say it is another NVIDIA + 2011 incompatibility.

Many thanks for replying. I’ve tried the resets to no avail. By “pulling the GPU from the system” I assume you mean remotely disabling the GPU? Unfortunately I have no idea how to do that, is there a guide I can follow?

 

[m0bil]

Hi Xanderson, I am new in the world of flashing but have done other GPU swaps successfully before. I have figured out that your lastest xanderson download allows for the K4100M, it is mentioned in the Quatro folder at least. I am still trying to get my flash drive, (actually it is a regular HDD with SATA-to-USB connector) to behave. When I am testing it,( booting on a working 2011 iMac via option key) the machine does boot up, but instead of loading Linux it shows these lines:
error: no such device: /conf/bootfile_grm164-small_1546178324.
error: unknown file system.
Unknown command 'normal'. E:
Could not find root device (for /conf/bootfile_grm164-small_1546178324)!
error: unknown filesystem.
Entering rescue mode... grub rescue>
Could someone please help me over this hurdle, before I try this on my actual K4100. I do know how to do the hardware part, did GPUs many times before, but this "flashing"is totally new for me...

Make sure you have created the USB drive correctly (partition type and filesystem). It seems the grub bootloader can't find the root device partition. You can also try booting it on a PC to see if it works.
Also, maybe is the SATA-to-USB adapter, but I've used these before without problems, and it's reading the grub bootloader.

 

[jurgenkoppen]

Make sure you have created the USB drive correctly (partition type and filesystem). It seems the grub bootloader can't find the root device partition. You can also try booting it on a PC to see if it works.
Also, maybe is the SATA-to-USB adapter, but I've used these before without problems, and it's reading the grub bootloader.

Thank you for you reply. I have tried it with a good USB drive, and then with a regular conventional HDD, both with the same results. In both cases I have erased the discs or USB drive using exFAT / guide partition map. Then I copy and pasted the xanaderson latest download, the fiole stucture as shown in my attachment. I followed Curtis'video and xandersons instructions to the best of my comprehension. I guess next would be to try a SMC and PRAM reset on the 2011 iMac I am testing those drives on...? Or see if they load on another Mac properly...ie: going into Lynix. I should note that I tried so far to thest thoise drives both with another SSD in the machine using "option", and also on thier own. Still the same...

 

[dfranetic]

What do I need to do to the Wx7100 card to get it work with my IMac

Read post 1. With a V1.1 card - nothing (apart from mounting it and flashing it), it should just work. With a V1.0 card - I/we don't know, but V1.0 card doesn't work. (It does not POST.)

 

[m0bil]

Thank you for you reply. I have tried it with a good USB drive, and then with a regular conventional HDD, both with the same results. In both cases I have erased the discs or USB drive using exFAT / guide partition map. Then I copy and pasted the xanaderson latest download, the fiole stucture as shown in my attachment. I followed Curtis'video and xandersons instructions to the best of my comprehension. I guess next would be to try a SMC and PRAM reset on the 2011 iMac I am testing those drives on...? Or see if they load on another Mac properly...ie: going into Lynix. I should note that I tried so far to thest thoise drives both with another SSD in the machine using "option", and also on thier own. Still the same...

Don't use exFAT, use FAT32

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Many thanks for replying. I’ve tried the resets to no avail. By “pulling the GPU from the system” I assume you mean remotely disabling the GPU? Unfortunately I have no idea how to do that, is there a guide I can follow?

physically pulling

 

[ElCani]

physically pulling

Aha. Seems like hard work.