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

[jimbob200521]

Yes, this is fine. I posted details installing the k2000m in #1566. In short: heatsink works, but the mounting bracket holes are smaller compared to the apple version. You need to carefully drill that out and countersink it so the original screw heads sits flash on the bracket.

I don't suppose you happen to have a link to the post you speak of?

 

[monofase]

Hi to all,
I have a lot of 2011s to repair so i tried:
- GTX 765M 2GB from AlienWare, it works but no bootSceeen and brightness
- 6770M from Dell with modded bios chip and custom ROM I found from another similar card. Works but as I read here is going to die and takes too much work

Now i wanna try the K2000M. I'm assuming it must be also a Dell model, because I tried a 2800M from HP I bought from ebay.. nothing but black screen And I think I can't reflash with Dell BIOS since it does not have a BIOS chip

@highvoltage12v thanks for the tip, I'm going also to swap the CPU with the i7! The Xeon you installed in the 2010 iMac does fit without any mod to the heatsink?
[doublepost=1549831762][/doublepost]

I don't suppose you happen to have a link to the post you speak of?

I've done the same thing on my Dell GTX 675 not using the original apple x-bracket because it lacks from the rear back plate for the VRAM chips

 

[highvoltage12v]

Thank you for the reply! I'll most likely skip the CPU upgrade as I've got another computer I use if I need some heavy lifting, this one (if I decide to invest in getting it going) will most likely wind up in the living room for email and general internet browsing, nothing special.

As for the k2000m, if I search on eBay, is there anything special I need to keep an eye out for that would prevent this card from working? Will I be able to reuse the heatsink that is already in the iMac or will another be needed since it's a different card? I found this one on eBay, doesn't seem too bad a deal...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-Qua...8:g:uXkAAOSwNUtbbcCP:rk:1:pf:1&frcectupt=true

is there anything special I need to keep an eye out for that would prevent this card from working?

Yes, when you get the card you need to carefully remove the X bracket on the back (it's just held on with adhesive) see my post here https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/page-62#post-27005497 I then drilled the posts out with a"5/64" drill, then moved up to 3/32, and finally to a 7/64" drill as mentioned in post #1402. If you are installing Mojave I recommend you to partition your disk and have High Sierra on Partition 1 and Mojave on Partition 2. That way if Mojave breaks the PlatformSupport.Plist you can PRAM reset (command-alt-p-r) and the computer will boot back to HS and you can then tell it to boot the patched installer for Mojave. Also do not install the video card patch when installing Mojave, you will have laggy video if you do.

But lets just start with installing the k2000m first. It's Kepler based so it works natively in All OS's since 10.11-10.14. You do not need to modify the heatsink on the 21.5" version iMac, it's the 27" that needs modification.
[doublepost=1549832446][/doublepost]

Hi to all,
I have a lot of 2011s to repair so i tried:
- GTX 765M 2GB from AlienWare, it works but no bootSceeen and brightness
- 6770M from Dell with modded bios chip and custom ROM I found from another similar card. Works but as I read here is going to die and takes too much work

Now i wanna try the K2000M. I'm assuming it must be also a Dell model, because I tried a 2800M from HP I bought from ebay.. nothing but black screen And I think I can't reflash with Dell BIOS since it does not have a BIOS chip

@highvoltage12v thanks for the tip, I'm going also to swap the CPU with the i7! The Xeon you installed in the 2010 iMac does fit without any mod to the heatsink?
[doublepost=1549831762][/doublepost]
I've done the same thing on my Dell GTX 675 not using the original apple x-bracket because it lacks from the rear back plate for the VRAM chips

I bought a HP elite 8200 like this https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-8200-El...8GHZ-8GB-RAM-320GB-HDD-UBUNTU-OP/273691736007 swapped the CPU's with it and resold it for just about the same price. It's the cheapest way to get ahold of a 2600s. My 2010 iMac has a L3426 which is a low wattage CPU that's quad core with hyperthreading, It runs pretty cool and there are no modifications to use it in the 21.5" 2010 iMac. The higher wattage i7's don't work, fans run on full speed, don't attempt, waste of time.

 

[passatgt]

Interesting, do you have both thunderbolt ports on the back working for display output? I never had both my iMacs apart at the same time, so I didn't know they were the same length.

Sadly no idea, i did not tried that.
[doublepost=1549832709][/doublepost]

I don't suppose you happen to have a link to the post you speak of?

Just go back a few pages? But here it is.

 

[monofase]

Yes, when you get the card you need to carefully remove the X bracket on the back (it's just held on with adhesive) see my post here https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/page-62#post-27005497 I then drilled the posts out with a"5/64" drill, then moved up to 3/32, and finally to a 7/64" drill as mentioned in post #1402. If you are installing Mojave I recommend you to partition your disk and have High Sierra on Partition 1 and Mojave on Partition 2. That way if Mojave breaks the PlatformSupport.Plist you can PRAM reset (command-alt-p-r) and the computer will boot back to HS and you can then tell it to boot the patched installer for Mojave. Also do not install the video card patch when installing Mojave, you will have laggy video if you do.

But lets just start with installing the k2000m first. It's Kepler based so it works natively in All OS's since 10.11-10.14. You do not need to modify the heatsink on the 21.5" version iMac, it's the 27" that needs modification.
[doublepost=1549832446][/doublepost]
I bought a HP elite 8200 like this https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-8200-El...8GHZ-8GB-RAM-320GB-HDD-UBUNTU-OP/273691736007 swapped the CPU's with it and resold it for just about the same price. It's the cheapest way to get ahold of a 2600s. My 2010 iMac has a L3426 which is a low wattage CPU that's quad core with hyperthreading, It runs pretty cool and there are no modifications to use it in the 21.5" 2010 iMac. The higher wattage i7's don't work, fans run on full speed, don't attempt, waste of time.

That's a good price for that machine. Here in Italy machines like that HP will cost at least 300 Euro!!

 

[Toni96pp]

Have anyone tried to put a gtx 1060m?

 

[jmilan0302]

Have anyone tried to put a gtx 1060m?

I assume you mean GTX 1060? They got rid of the "M" versions with Pascal. Anyways, no, as far as I know no Pascal cards have been tested. It would be great if something like a 1050 Ti works though.

 

[highvoltage12v]

I assume you mean GTX 1060? They got rid of the "M" versions with Pascal. Anyways, no, as far as I know no Pascal cards have been tested. It would be great if something like a 1050 Ti works though.

We have yet to find a Maxwell MXM card that will communicate with the internal screen, so I imagine Pascal will be just as difficult. It's all trial and error at this point. I thought I saw someone this thread try an AMD polaris MXM card but I couldn't find it searching this thread. From what I remember it didn't work either.
The way things are going with Web drivers for 10.14 makes me want to stay away fom Maxwell/Pascal, maybe after the GTX 1660 launches Nvidia will release web drivers, but it's wishful thinking at this point.

 

[Just.G]

Hello everybody . Maybe someone can help me ... Can I use a gtx 770m 2gb from alienware to replace my dead 6970m on the iMac 27" 2011 ? Or the nvidia quadro k2000m ? Thank you

 

[Hombre71]

Hello everybody . Maybe someone can help me ... Can I use a gtx 770m 2gb from alienware to replace my dead 6970m on the iMac 27" 2011 ? Or the nvidia quadro k2000m ? Thank you

I successfully installed a GTX 770M 3GB DDR5 (Type B for Clevo, Alienware) in my 27" 2011.
It was not a surprise, I found a mention online that it would work. Good luck!

 

[highvoltage12v]

Hello everybody . Maybe someone can help me ... Can I use a gtx 770m 2gb from alienware to replace my dead 6970m on the iMac 27" 2011 ? Or the nvidia quadro k2000m ? Thank you

Because you have a 27" you don't need a k2000m as it's an MXM-A (21.5" need MXM-A) size card. You can go with the 675m/770m/780m which are all MXM-B sized cards. As far as I know All 7xx cards from Alienware laptops work fine, is it an eBay listing, or from an actual laptop?

 

[Just.G]

I successfully installed a GTX 770M 3GB DDR5 (Type B for Clevo, Alienware) in my 27" 2011.
It was not a surprise, I found a mention online that it would work. Good luck!

Thanks Hombre . There is some particular procedure to do , or I can just plug-in and it will be recognized ?
[doublepost=1549985535][/doublepost]

Because you have a 27" you don't need a k2000m as it's an MXM-A (21.5" need MXM-A) size card. You can go with the 675m/770m/780m which are all MXM-B sized cards. As far as I know All 7xx cards from Alienware laptops work fine, is it an eBay listing, or from an actual laptop?

I mentioned the k2000m because is cheaper , but you are right , I will go with the 770 . No , it's not on eBay , I found it on another web site .It's the 2gb model from a Alienware 17 . Thanks

 

[passatgt]

Thanks Hombre . There is some particular procedure to do , or I can just plug-in and it will be recognized ?
[doublepost=1549985535][/doublepost]
I mentioned the k2000m because is cheaper , but you are right , I will go with the 770 . No , it's not on eBay , I found it on another web site .It's the 2gb model from a Alienware 17 . Thanks

You might need to grind some parts off the heatsink at the top, because theres some stuff on the gpu that will touch it. Also, the mounting bracket from the 6970m might not fit correctly. If you use the 770m's bracket, you need to drill the holes out to make it a bit wider, or grind some parts off from the 6970m's bracket so it won't touch anything on the card. Other than these two things, its plug&play.

 

[Just.G]

You might need to grind some parts off the heatsink at the top, because theres some stuff on the gpu that will touch it. Also, the mounting bracket from the 6970m might not fit correctly. If you use the 770m's bracket, you need to drill the holes out to make it a bit wider, or grind some parts off from the 6970m's bracket so it won't touch anything on the card. Other than these two things, its plug&play.

It not seems too complicated , I can handle the "hardware" problem . I was preoccupied about the software , flashing firmwares or something else . Great , I will try to seal the deal and post some photos . So the only thing I lose is the brightness control and the bootscreen ?

 

[passatgt]

It not seems too complicated , I can handle the "hardware" problem . I was preoccupied about the software , flashing firmwares or something else . Great , I will try to seal the deal and post some photos . So the only thing I lose is the brightness control and the bootscreen ?

Yes. Theres one more issue with loosing brightness control: the 27" iMac's screen will be really hot on max brightness. Theres an app called QuickShade, which can simulate brightness control. This is a "virtual" fix, as it will just dim the colors appearing on the screen, but it will still run on max brightness. So it's highly advised that you adjust your CPU and HDD fans to spin a little more, this helps with cooling a lot. I'm running my HDD fan at 2000RPM minimum and the CPU at 1300RPM minimum, this makes everything pretty cool, like 50-60 degrees max, which is perfectly fine. @dosdude1 is working on a fix for his DyingLight module, which can be used to control brightness properly, the hardware way in iMacs too. You might want to check this out: https://www.ebay.com/itm/DyingLight-Mk-II-Backlight-Control-Module-/292891728547?oid=292788243275

 

[highvoltage12v]

You might need to grind some parts off the heatsink at the top, because theres some stuff on the gpu that will touch it. Also, the mounting bracket from the 6970m might not fit correctly. If you use the 770m's bracket, you need to drill the holes out to make it a bit wider, or grind some parts off from the 6970m's bracket so it won't touch anything on the card. Other than these two things, its plug&play.

This thread just needs to be made a WIKI already so the first post on this thread can have the needed modifications on the front page. I don't know who/how this is done on Macrumors.

 

[passatgt]

This thread needs to be made a WIKI already so the first post on this thread can have the needed modifications on the front page. I don't know who/how this is done on Macrumors.

We could create a website(or a github repo) and include a link for it in the first post? I'm sure the mods can edit the post.

 

[highvoltage12v]

I did the security update on my 2010 iMac which did a firmware update with the k2000m installed. So yes our Mac's will do firmware updates with non EFI cards. However I highly recommend everyone backup their rom with http://dosdude1.com/apps/ROMTool.zip (password "rom")before proceeding in case Apple were change something that prevents MXM swapped iMacs to stop booting, or your ROM were to be corrupted during a Firmware update (I had it happen to a 2012 Mac mini)

@MichaelDT would it be possible to change this thread to a WIKI so we can add the necessary modification information necessary to the front page?
Thanks
[doublepost=1549996539][/doublepost]

We could create a website(or a github repo) and include a link for it in the first post? I'm sure the mods can edit the post.

I know that's possible, but I want to keep everything on one thread/website.

 

[jmilan0302]

We have yet to find a Maxwell MXM card that will communicate with the internal screen, so I imagine Pascal will be just as difficult. It's all trial and error at this point. I thought I saw someone this thread try an AMD polaris MXM card but I couldn't find it searching this thread. From what I remember it didn't work either.
The way things are going with Web drivers for 10.14 makes me want to stay away fom Maxwell/Pascal, maybe after the GTX 1660 launches Nvidia will release web drivers, but it's wishful thinking at this point.

I think someone here sent a link to another forum where a guy got a 980M working in his iMac. Also, which Polaris MXM card did they try?

 

[highvoltage12v]

I think someone here sent a link to another forum where a guy got a 980M working in his iMac. Also, which Polaris MXM card did they try?

If it's the thread i'm thinking of they showed system profiler with a display plugged into the thunderbolt port but the internal display is never shown. Also it was a RX 580 MXM card.

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/4175243/all this was the thread I saw. A Dell screen is online but the internal iMac's LCD is not shown.

 

[iF34R]

Just seeing this thread!! I'd love to try and upgrade the GPU in my late 2012 27" iMac!! Sitting on a 2GB GTX 660M.

 

[highvoltage12v]

Just seeing this thread!! I'd love to try and upgrade the GPU in my late 2012 27" iMac!! Sitting on a 2GB GTX 660M.

Uh, sorry to break the enthusiasm but the 2012 iMac's (tapered edge) don't have an MXM slot. It's the thick iMac's that Apple had MXM slots (2009 21.5 doesn't)

 

[Hombre71]

Thanks Hombre . There is some particular procedure to do , or I can just plug-in and it will be recognized ?

From a software point of view it was plug and play.

I simply transferred the bracket from the AMD card that came out of it onto the 770, in my case it fit fine. Replace thermal pads and paste, replaced the cpu paste at the same time and clean the dust out of everything.

 

[Hombre71]

Thanks Hombre . There is some particular procedure to do , or I can just plug-in and it will be recognized ?
[doublepost=1549985535][/doublepost]
I mentioned the k2000m because is cheaper , but you are right , I will go with the 770 . No , it's not on eBay , I found it on another web site .It's the 2gb model from a Alienware 17 . Thanks

You will need to take the motherboard out of the iMac. I found this one helpfull:

https://nl.ifixit.com/Guide/Install...2429+Dual+Drive+Kit+(HDD+or+SSD)/7575?lang=en

Despite being for the dual drive kit it get you to removing the motherboard

 

[MichaelDT]

...
@MichaelDT would it be possible to change this thread to a WIKI so we can add the necessary modification information necessary to the front page?
Thanks

Done!

I’m amazed at this thread. I sort of lost interest after I my initial hacks, got a few college degrees. Gave my iMac to my wife a year ago. Perhaps I’ll reclaim it. My new job gives me access to PCB fab facilities and 3D printers. I’m thinking of crafting a bespoke mxm to pcie device as I’ve mentioned before. Let the old iMacs make it to the impending doom of an ARM transition.