Another example of these in house cards not following the MXM standard.
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iM 4,1-14,4 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade
- Thread starter MichaelDT
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The solder looks like the components are broken off. See if the card works at all.
Check this post and #14 - most likely the card will cause and SMBUS problem and will not work in 2011 iMacs. I had exactly the same symtoms with an K3000M in an iMac12,2 approximately 18 months ago. These problems made me switch completely to new AMD cards. There is no software fix for this problem.
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Oh my god, thank you so much, I though I’m the only one here, so you replace with new AMD card ?or switch back to original.
Question. According to your experiences, what is the best gpu mxm-A upgrade that can be done in a 2011 imac 21,5"?
When I say best, I mean a card that has proven to be stable after flashing the new modded bios, most things work out of the box and needs the less mods possible (this is why I prefer to upgrade to an mxm-A card). Maybe future proof as well.
I am between k2100m and a WX4130.
My goal is to upgrade to Big Sur or Monterey using OCLP.
Many thanks for your suggestions.
When I say best, I mean a card that has proven to be stable after flashing the new modded bios, most things work out of the box and needs the less mods possible (this is why I prefer to upgrade to an mxm-A card). Maybe future proof as well.
I am between k2100m and a WX4130.
My goal is to upgrade to Big Sur or Monterey using OCLP.
Many thanks for your suggestions.
If you ask for future proofing, go with WX4130/WX4150. (While AMD GCN cards will also run unpatched Monterey, sleep is - probably - broken with iMac12,1.)
Do you know which card isn't broken on the 12,1? I currently have a k4000m and it's getting annoying having to restart multiple times. (even lower tier card like a k1100m would be fine, I only use it for browsing)
Thanks
So, I ended up ordering the following card for my 2011 imac 21,5":
The plan is to use it and update to Big Sur (since it still supports the Kepler drivers out of the box).
So, in what order should I go forward? The iMac now runs High Sierra. Should I:
1. Replace the card.
2. Flash the modded bios using xanderon's usb pen drive method (or dual boot windows method).
3. Install OCLP
4. Update to Big Sur.
Or should I update to Big Sur first using OCLP and then replace the GPU and flash the modded bios ?
Many thanks for your kind suggestions.
P.S.:
1. I could not find in Europe a used wx4130 this is why I ended up getting the k2100m.
2. I would also like to update the cpu to i7-2600s (I currently have the i5-2500s), but the "s" variants are pretty hard to find...
DELL M4700 M4800 M6700 NVIDIA QUADRO K2100M VIDEO CARD 2GB CN-0G4FN0 GENUINE
It should be ok, correct? Please see also the attached pics. It is from a Dell, it is an MXM-A type (so no heatsink mods) and it has metal support. The specs are: https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/163744/163744The plan is to use it and update to Big Sur (since it still supports the Kepler drivers out of the box).
So, in what order should I go forward? The iMac now runs High Sierra. Should I:
1. Replace the card.
2. Flash the modded bios using xanderon's usb pen drive method (or dual boot windows method).
3. Install OCLP
4. Update to Big Sur.
Or should I update to Big Sur first using OCLP and then replace the GPU and flash the modded bios ?
Many thanks for your kind suggestions.
P.S.:
1. I could not find in Europe a used wx4130 this is why I ended up getting the k2100m.
2. I would also like to update the cpu to i7-2600s (I currently have the i5-2500s), but the "s" variants are pretty hard to find...
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I need help here. I'm finally getting around to upgrading my iMac after the GPU failed back in 2017, but the problem I'm facing is the fact that I have no OS installed, because the SSD is empty of storage. How will I be able to flash the GPU if I won't have any possible way to download Windows? Will I still be able to access recovery mode and do that? I'm replacing the 6770 with a Nvidia k2100m.
I also have 2 other working Macs, so if I need to install something to a USB Drive, that's possible for me, I'm just confused on the process regarding this specific situation.
I also have 2 other working Macs, so if I need to install something to a USB Drive, that's possible for me, I'm just confused on the process regarding this specific situation.
I have an 2011 imac that has faulty gpu , when gpu installed the imac never boot , checked diagnostic leds found only 1st led on and nothing else and fans start to spin and stop immediately, when i remove gpu the imac starts normally and i hear chime sound , but when i installed display with no gpu , no backlight screen just black , any help pls , thanks in advance.
Well, if the original GPU is, as you said earlier, faulty, then read (and reread) post 1 and then make your pick. (You will not get an image or even backlight on the display if you start the iMac with no GPU installed.)
Is that makes fans spin at high speed too?
I’m thinking abt k3100m what do you think?
Thanks
High speed fans are probably related to GPU heatsink temp. sensor being disconnected without the GPU installed.
I will not comment on the choice of GPU as this is an end-user-biased decision. (But do read post 1 thoroughly before making your pick - there are pros/cons with all cards...)
Hi,
First of all, I'm new to the mac world.
I'm going nuts with an iMac 27 mid 2010 for witch I upgraded de CPU with a i7-870 that I had laying around and I also spent some money on a supposedly, already bios modded GTX 870M 3GB.
I upgraded the CPU first still with the original 1TB HDD, the MAC started fine with the original MacOS High Sierra installed, then, couple of days later, it was very slow to boot, until it didn't boot at all. I took the HDD out and plugged it to a windows PC and yeah, the HDD was dead. Could not even create a backup.
So, replaced the HDD with a new SSD, put High Sierra 10.13.6 to a usb pen using a mix of transMac to format it and balenaEtcher to flash it (Could not make it bootable any other way).
In the meanwhile the new NVIDIA GPU arrived, so i decided to install it before installing macOS. This didn't work. During the boot of the USB drive, it would either hang during load around 80% or just go to a black screen after this.
Installed the old ATI card and now I was able to install macOS successfully.
Installing the new nvidia card, it's not booting, I would say I'm facing issue 11 from #28818975, it reaches at around 60% and then reboots to the apple logo with the chime again. It stays like this until I push the power button. I did the PRAM reset but it didn't do anything different (I'm doing this with the internal screen disconnected. using an external screen).
I then installed ubuntu and executed valley benchmark but it's very slow (running on software or opengl?) I then installed the nvidia drivers from ubuntu repo directy and now ubuntu is not booting. I might try tomorrow to install it again and try the drivers from nvidia website.
Any hints? Should I return the GPU?
Thank you.
First of all, I'm new to the mac world.
I'm going nuts with an iMac 27 mid 2010 for witch I upgraded de CPU with a i7-870 that I had laying around and I also spent some money on a supposedly, already bios modded GTX 870M 3GB.
I upgraded the CPU first still with the original 1TB HDD, the MAC started fine with the original MacOS High Sierra installed, then, couple of days later, it was very slow to boot, until it didn't boot at all. I took the HDD out and plugged it to a windows PC and yeah, the HDD was dead. Could not even create a backup.
So, replaced the HDD with a new SSD, put High Sierra 10.13.6 to a usb pen using a mix of transMac to format it and balenaEtcher to flash it (Could not make it bootable any other way).
In the meanwhile the new NVIDIA GPU arrived, so i decided to install it before installing macOS. This didn't work. During the boot of the USB drive, it would either hang during load around 80% or just go to a black screen after this.
Installed the old ATI card and now I was able to install macOS successfully.
Installing the new nvidia card, it's not booting, I would say I'm facing issue 11 from #28818975, it reaches at around 60% and then reboots to the apple logo with the chime again. It stays like this until I push the power button. I did the PRAM reset but it didn't do anything different (I'm doing this with the internal screen disconnected. using an external screen).
I then installed ubuntu and executed valley benchmark but it's very slow (running on software or opengl?) I then installed the nvidia drivers from ubuntu repo directy and now ubuntu is not booting. I might try tomorrow to install it again and try the drivers from nvidia website.
Any hints? Should I return the GPU?
Thank you.
Thank you! Just one more question I have here which I couldn't find any info for;
Should I be using 0.5 or 1mm thick thermal pads for the k2100m?
Edit: Nvm, bought some K5 instead.
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Try to flash the correct vBIOS from page #1 to your GPU.
Unless your internal screen and its LCD temp sensor have been reconnected the CPU and GPU run in throttled mode. Cannot tell you where you find this, but hopefully on the same port you linked in yourself. In this mode no benchmark will run really fast.
Old NVIDIA cards in iMac12,2 are a nightmare. Yes, return it if flashing does not change the behavior return the card as fast as you can.
If you just want to use Ubuntu you can use any of the listed AMD GCN cards. The sleep/wake issue described happens only with macOS. Of course you would need OpenCore to have a boot picker…
I know it's not recommended to use MXM-B GPUs on the 21.5" iMac due to power consumption, but the AMD WX4170 has a lower TDP than the Quadra K2100M (MXM-A), but the WX4170 is MXM-B. Assuming I modded the heatsink etc, do you think the 4170 would work?