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

[SEJU]

Please identify the posts with contradictions you found. Happy to correct these.

Thanks for your reply and everything. I assumed from post #1 that the WX4150 or WX7100 were the way to go in my case, since a suitable WX4170 is currently nowhere to be found and might just be too difficult to source. Everything appeared to be ok.

Somehow I stumbled on the sleep/wake and got driven off. Maybe I read just too much in the forum today....

I will try to replicate what caused my confusion... I tried a search for "iMac 2011 sleep/wake" + "iMac 2011 sleep/wake 4150" and got infos such as:

1. #19,013 a mention of a generic "AMD GCN dGPU breaks sleep/wake" issue (GCN 1-3, 4, all?)
2. #17,000 a mention of GCN cards, which will crash an iMac12,2 when putting them into sleep (GCN 1-3, 4, all?)
3. #18,114 a mention of AMD GCN cards, causing sleep/wake issues (GCN 1-3, 4, all?)

In case there are no sleep/wake issues with GCN v4, the fact that in these posts there is only a generic reference to AMD GCN probably causes distraction and

4. #18,994 a question related to sleep/wake and WX4130/WX4150/WX4170/WX7100 in iMac12,xs, does not find an answer, but results in the correction of a typo.
5. #16,322 a mention of a WX4170 which might have had issues?

did not help either. Rereading post #1 did not explicitly confirm, that there were no sleep/wake issues with WX4150 or WX7100 and I decided to ask before proceeding with my upgrade plan by placing an order.

Sorry for the hassle. Thanks again.

 

[idenis42]

First of all thanks for this amazing thread! I have recently received a nonworking iMac 2011 27" as a gift, resurrected it and I am currently considering as a next step upgrading the GPU. I am focusing on either a WX4150 (Dell branded) or a WX7100 (Dell branded v.1.1) for this matter. From post #1 I deduced that both cards should run without problems. They should POST, etc. But recently I stumbled upon the sleep/wake issue related to iMac 12.2 (2011) machines and I am unable to sort out, if it occurs also with GCN4 Polaris WX4150 or WX7100 cards. There are way too many posts related to the sleep/wake issue and they sometimes contradict each other.

The post from @Ausdauersportler says, that there are no problems other than the loss of one external display port with GCN4 Polaris cards.

Could someone please confirm if GCN4 cards in iMac12,2 have sleep/wake issues? (After upgrading from High Sierra and while running OCLP or similar).

Thanks!

My WX7100 is fully functional. Sleep works without problems!!!

 

[SEJU]

Thanks @idenis42 for the guidance in this massive thread. That is what I thought but probably got lost in this galaxy of posts. Now I just will have to do my research on the WX7100 version conundrum ;0) Post #1 refers to v1.1, but there appear to be different part-numbers... Maybe that is a new distraction ... What version are you running?

 

[idenis42]

Thanks @idenis42 for the guidance in this massive thread. That is what I thought but probably got lost in this galaxy of posts. Now I just will have to do my research on the WX7100 version conundrum ;0) Post #1 refers to v1.1, but there appear to be different part-numbers... What version are you running?

I tried 1.0 - doesn't work at all! And 1.1 works great! The post is enabled.

 

[idenis42]

There is a video card on the AVITO.RU website

Thanks @idenis42 for the guidance in this massive thread. That is what I thought but probably got lost in this galaxy of posts. Now I just will have to do my research on the WX7100 version conundrum ;0) Post #1 refers to v1.1, but there appear to be different part-numbers... What version are you running?

Видеокарта ADM WX7100 8 Gb VER 1.1 купить в Санкт-Петербурге | Электроника | Авито

Видеокарта ADM WX7100 8 Gb VER 1.1: объявление о продаже в Санкт-Петербурге на Авито. Продаю почти новую видеокарту.

www.avito.ru

 

[The_Croupier]

I think you would have to be bonkers to put such an expensive card into one of these iMacs.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Thanks for your reply and everything. I assumed from post #1 that the WX4150 or WX7100 were the way to go in my case, since a suitable WX4170 is currently nowhere to be found and might just be too difficult to source. Everything appeared to be ok.

Somehow I stumbled on the sleep/wake and got driven off. Maybe I read just too much in the forum today....

I will try to replicate what caused my confusion... I tried a search for "iMac 2011 sleep/wake" + "iMac 2011 sleep/wake 4150" and got infos such as:

1. #19,013 a mention of a generic "AMD GCN dGPU breaks sleep/wake" issue (GCN 1-3, 4, all?)
2. #17,000 a mention of GCN cards, which will crash an iMac12,2 when putting them into sleep (GCN 1-3, 4, all?)
3. #18,114 a mention of AMD GCN cards, causing sleep/wake issues (GCN 1-3, 4, all?)

In case there are no sleep/wake issues with GCN v4, the fact that in these posts there is only a generic reference to AMD GCN probably causes distraction and

4. #18,994 a question related to sleep/wake and WX4130/WX4150/WX4170/WX7100 in iMac12,xs, does not find an answer, but results in the correction of a typo.
5. #16,322 a mention of a WX4170 which might have had issues?

did not help either. Rereading post #1 did not explicitly confirm, that there were no sleep/wake issues with WX4150 or WX7100 and I decided to ask before proceeding with my upgrade plan by placing an order.

Sorry for the hassle. Thanks again.

Let's get your answers about non-technical matters first:
1. How much you want/plan to spend?
2. What purpose of your upgrade?

If your answer is 1. Money doesn't matter and 2. For fun,
then by all means, get the WX7100 ver 1.1 or better yet, pre-modded RX5500

If your answer is 1. 300~400$ and 2. For working with Mac OS Monterey or later.
Then my advice is buy a Mac Mini M1, and one LCD driver board kit to convert your iMac to a stand-alone monitor.

 

[Rainy1989]

Hello everyone
Recently, I got two 5500xt mxm cards(which are the same card as this thread mentioned), the first one is said to be modified so that the edp channel can work in a pc notebook, the other one is not modified.
I tested these two cards for some times, and I found both 5500xt cards works properly in iMac 2011 27'' regardless of whether it has been modified or not.

I use OCLP as bootloader, but the config.plist files need to be added one more argument in boot-args as below：agdpmod=pikera

After getting that done reboot the system, both of the build in monitor and the external monitor worked greatly. I think it‘s a good news for us to upgrade imac 2009 - 2011. But the machine still not work perfectly.
Every time I login in the system, OCLP tell me I'm running without root patches.

If I run the root patches, the card will work poorly, it seems the drive of 5500xt is deleted by OCLP
Please help me to solve this problem, our machines will be perfect.

Sorry for my poor English. Thx a lot.

 

[MarkBear]

Hi all! I ask for help, I installed NVIDIA quadro k3100m in my iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011) (I already had the firmware when I bought it). It seems to work, but the graphics slow down. I mainly work in Xcode, the simulator does not work in it. The window stretches jerkily like in other applications! I'm doing something wrong, I can't figure out what!
OCLP 0.4.11 does not solve the problem? Or is that how it should be?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi all! I ask for help, I installed NVIDIA quadro k3100m in my iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011) (I already had the firmware when I bought it). It seems to work, but the graphics slow down. I mainly work in Xcode, the simulator does not work in it. The window stretches jerkily like in other applications! I'm doing something wrong, I can't figure out what!
OCLP 0.4.11 does not solve the problem? Or is that how it should be?

Known issue with Kepler cards and Xcode on Monterey. No fix right now.

You might cross check if your vBIOS is the latest published here. But it will not fix your problem…

 

[MarkBear]

Known issue with Kepler cards and Xcode on Monterey. No fix right now.

You might cross check if your vBIOS is the latest published here. But it will not fix your problem…

Thanks a lot! I'll wait for a solution to this problem)

 

[Marche90]

Hello everyone
Recently, I got two 5500xt mxm cards(which are the same card as this thread mentioned), the first one is said to be modified so that the edp channel can work in a pc notebook, the other one is not modified.
I tested these two cards for some times, and I found both 5500xt cards works properly in iMac 2011 27'' regardless of whether it has been modified or not.View attachment 2070964
I use OCLP as bootloader, but the config.plist files need to be added one more argument in boot-args as below：agdpmod=pikeraView attachment 2070982
After getting that done reboot the system, both of the build in monitor and the external monitor worked greatly. I think it‘s a good news for us to upgrade imac 2009 - 2011. But the machine still not work perfectly.
Every time I login in the system, OCLP tell me I'm running without root patches.View attachment 2070950
If I run the root patches, the card will work poorly, it seems the drive of 5500xt is deleted by OCLP
Please help me to solve this problem, our machines will be perfect.
View attachment 2070954View attachment 2070958View attachment 2070959View attachment 2070961View attachment 2070960
Sorry for my poor English. Thx a lot.

Thinking a bit outside the box, what would happen if you were to swap the CPU with one without an iGPU, like a Xeon E3 1270? Would it still ask to install the HD3000 kexts?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thinking a bit outside the box, what would happen if you were to swap the CPU with one without an iGPU, like a Xeon E3 1270? Would it still ask to install the HD3000 kexts?

It is a software problem! A CPU replacement will not fix the OCLP.

 

[Rainy1989]

Thinking a bit outside the box, what would happen if you were to swap the CPU with one without an iGPU, like a Xeon E3 1270? Would it still ask to install the HD3000 kexts?

Yes, I thought about it before, but E3-1270 can't not sleep, and I don't have the E3 CPU now.

 

[Oyah12]

Hi, my 2011 iMac's graphic card is dead, I don't want to bother with temporary fix solution using thermal paste and oven; Performance does not matter the most for me. Which reliable and proven graphic card should I go by. Thanks

ps: not brave enough to through 800 pages of the topic

 

[internetzel]

Hi, my 2011 iMac's graphic card is dead, I don't want to bother with temporary fix solution using thermal paste and oven; Performance does not matter the most for me. Which reliable and proven graphic card should I go by. Thanks

ps: not brave enough to through 800 pages of the topic

You only need to study the first post, and what is linked there.

 

[rodolfo.araujo]

Hi, my 2011 iMac's graphic card is dead, I don't want to bother with temporary fix solution using thermal paste and oven; Performance does not matter the most for me. Which reliable and proven graphic card should I go by. Thanks

ps: not brave enough to through 800 pages of the topic

First topic is your best friend

 

[Secret-Sounds]

Thank you for this amazing thread! It has helped me to repair a bunch of iMacs 2009-2011 over the years!

I recently got my hands on a HP branded K4100M and I'm unable to get any display output from it (tested on iMac 11,3 and 12,2). On stock vBIOS the screen (internal or external) stays dark. When flashed with nickey22's vBIOS the backlight comes on but I get a repeated/stuttered chime (on every start) and the system is unable to boot. I have to then take out the card, do 3 PRAM resets, insert the card and boot without display in order to get back into the Linux USB. At no point do I have display output.

The card came with BIOS 80.04.E8.00.22 and seems to have different SKhynix memory as tested. Is there any hope this card will be supported? Can I do or provide something to help? Or just give up and move on?
Thanks again for your amazing help!

 

[idenis42]

Thank you for this amazing thread! It has helped me to repair a bunch of iMacs 2009-2011 over the years!

I recently got my hands on a HP branded K4100M and I'm unable to get any display output from it (tested on iMac 11,3 and 12,2). On stock vBIOS the screen (internal or external) stays dark. When flashed with nickey22's vBIOS the backlight comes on but I get a repeated/stuttered chime (on every start) and the system is unable to boot. I have to then take out the card, do 3 PRAM resets, insert the card and boot without display in order to get back into the Linux USB. At no point do I have display output.

The card came with BIOS 80.04.E8.00.22 and seems to have different SKhynix memory as tested. Is there any hope this card will be supported? Can I do or provide something to help? Or just give up and move on?
Thanks again for your amazing help!

My k4100m graphics card works without problems. Your graphics card is faulty.

 

[Secret-Sounds]

My k4100m graphics card works without problems. Your graphics card is faulty.

Thanks for the quick response. Is yours also a HP card? Couldn't it be a problem related to the difference in memory?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thanks for the quick response. Is yours also a HP card? Couldn't it be a problem related to the difference in memory?

Both memory support and post problems are described in great detail on the first post -> Nvidia -> known issues.

If you got a card not yet supported or cannot identify the memory type in use sell it and get another.

 

[Secret-Sounds]

Both memory support and post problems are described in great detail on the first post -> Nvidia -> known issues.

If you got a card not yet supported or cannot identify the memory type in use sell it and get another.

I suck 🤦‍♂️ I thought I had tested the AFR memory bios version but I guess I hadn’t… now the card is working as expected! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction and thanks again for this amazing thread!

 

[guitar_head]

Hello to everyone,
first of all, thank you for your wonderful work on gathering information to keep those old, yet powerful macs alive.

I had quite a struggle to get my iMac 11,3 working with the Nvidia K2100M. I flashed the Elpida Firmware because the memory chips clearly state "Elpidia". But I hat no bootpicker with OCLP. In my Odysee I finally formated my harddrive (I had also a Windows Partition on it) because I thougt, maybe it's my crazy partitioning which prevents OCLP to work.
Also it was impossible for me to boot the flash-USB-Stick. I tried everything. Finally I burnt a System Rescue Dvd with Linux on it and booted it while holding the "C" key on startup.
From there I managed the flash the "non Elpida-Version" of the Firmware and all of a sudden the bootpicker worked and could be seen by me.
In my hassle I accidently deleted my backup of the original Firmware.
Im writing this all down, just for others to overcome such a hassle.
After all I managed to install macOS Monterey and it works just fine, but

here's my question:

The "non Elpida" and the Elpida-Version show only 1 GB of Graphics memory, but on the card are clearly 2 Gb visible and it was advertised as this. I'll attach my pictures of the card, maybe someone can help me find the missing Gigabyte ;-)
Are there other Firmwares addressing this issue? Unfortunately I lost to original Firmware, which is a shame I know.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hello to everyone,
first of all, thank you for your wonderful work on gathering information to keep those old, yet powerful macs alive.

I had quite a struggle to get my iMac 11,3 working with the Nvidia K2100M. I flashed the Elpida Firmware because the memory chips clearly state "Elpidia". But I hat no bootpicker with OCLP. In my Odysee I finally formated my harddrive (I had also a Windows Partition on it) because I thougt, maybe it's my crazy partitioning which prevents OCLP to work.
Also it was impossible for me to boot the flash-USB-Stick. I tried everything. Finally I burnt a System Rescue Dvd with Linux on it and booted it while holding the "C" key on startup.
From there I managed the flash the "non Elpida-Version" of the Firmware and all of a sudden the bootpicker worked and could be seen by me.
In my hassle I accidently deleted my backup of the original Firmware.
Im writing this all down, just for others to overcome such a hassle.
After all I managed to install macOS Monterey and it works just fine, but

here's my question:

The "non Elpida" and the Elpida-Version show only 1 GB of Graphics memory, but on the card are clearly 2 Gb visible and it was advertised as this. I'll attach my pictures of the card, maybe someone can help me find the missing Gigabyte ;-)
Are there other Firmwares addressing this issue? Unfortunately I lost to original Firmware, which is a shame I know.

Flashing the wrong vBIOS ends up exactly with such side effect, the wrong VRAM will be shown. So you might got an unsupported card and we cannot currently fix it, even with your original vBIOS in hands. Too much work…

There are far better AMD options available for your particular system.

 

[guitar_head]

Flashing the wrong vBIOS ends up exactly with such side effect, the wrong VRAM will be shown. So you might got an unsupported card and we cannot currently fix it, even with your original vBIOS in hands. Too much work…

There are far better AMD options available for your particular system.

Thanx for the information.
I had a contact with Nick and reflashed the Elpida Firmware. Now it is working. It seems OLCP was misconfigured, maybe because of my partition in the first place and I must have fixed serveral things in one take.

So sorry for the inconvenience and a big thank you for your help!

Kind regards,
Guitar_head