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

[inck243]

Hey everyone! long time no see! I'm still using my 21.5 imac and it's working great! I recently received a 27" mid 2011 from someone on FB who didn't want it. SCORE! I'm going to upgrade this for sure. I was happy it's the 27" because I always figured I would try to get one of the MXM B cards like a GTX880 or 870... However, I've been doing some research that has me thinking otherwise.

So, in my research, I've plugged in the processor and graphics card to this website that calculates if a game can run. I started with the lowest graphics card; (K2100M) the same one I have now and it basically shows the processor is too weak for the graphics card and creates a bottleneck. When I compare the GTX cards, the bottleneck calculation goes up into the high 80s and 90 percent ranges.

It makes me think it's kind of not worth it to spend all the money on one of those MXM B cards and that I'd already be pretty maxed out with a K2100M.

Anyone agree? But also -- if you'd go for an MXM-B, what are the advantages?

Thanks!

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Slightly off topic, but an interesting project: https://www.kickstarter.com/project...b-upgrade-logic-board?ref=discovery&term=imac

It is expensive. I have experience with making your own hardware products, so i know it gets really expensive especially if it's small qty production, so this is not unrealistically expensive, but at least the idea is nice

The item shown in that link is very weird to me, as I have already purchased the whole LCD driver kit. There are 2 kinds of such kits available. The basic kit is 25$ (VGA + HDMI), the luxury kit (DP + HDMI + USB-C) is 75$.
Why develop something that has already been available commercially at much cheaper price?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

The item shown in that link is very weird to me, as I have already purchased the whole LCD driver kit. There are 2 kinds of such kits available. The basic kit is 25$ (VGA + HDMI), the luxury kit (DP + HDMI + USB-C) is 75$.
Why develop something that has already been available commercially at much cheaper price?

Yes, target pricing is really weird. But the currently available solutions (would) need an additional amplifier to use the internal speakers and AFAIK there is no way to use the FaceTime camera?

Would be nice to have a complete solution doing all this (at a reasonable price point).

 

[___]

Hey everyone! long time no see! I'm still using my 21.5 imac and it's working great! I recently received a 27" mid 2011 from someone on FB who didn't want it. SCORE! I'm going to upgrade this for sure. I was happy it's the 27" because I always figured I would try to get one of the MXM B cards like a GTX880 or 870... However, I've been doing some research that has me thinking otherwise.

So, in my research, I've plugged in the processor and graphics card to this website that calculates if a game can run. I started with the lowest graphics card; (K2100M) the same one I have now and it basically shows the processor is too weak for the graphics card and creates a bottleneck. When I compare the GTX cards, the bottleneck calculation goes up into the high 80s and 90 percent ranges.

It makes me think it's kind of not worth it to spend all the money on one of those MXM B cards and that I'd already be pretty maxed out with a K2100M.

Anyone agree? But also -- if you'd go for an MXM-B, what are the advantages?

Thanks!

I already had the same CPU as the i5 2011 iMac in a gaming PC in a regular form factor, an RX470 didn't get bottlenecked, an RX580 did slightly, same on Nvidia, 1050 Ti not bottlenecked, 1060 6gb bottlenecked slightly, that site is definitely bullshіtting you knowing you have the i7 version which is definitely not bottlenecked by an RX 580 nor a 1060 6gb (though for i7 tests I didn't have the iMac's 2600s, just the regular 2600 but they're pretty similar tbh)

 

[___]

I have to be honest: I was not affected by this, but can't say for sure that you will not. As I've said before, and as I have put in my signature, I'm not using an standard iMac CPU (a Xeon without an iGPU, for starters), so that changes things a bit in regards to my hardware. I actually asked about this a few pages ago but received no answer.



Check the seller's reputation and make sure it's well-reviewed. I bought mine from eBay and so far it's been good. Other than that, you're on your own.

I'm likely going to buy that xeon for another project anyway, might test it in my iMac if I get the error

 

[Schprecher]

** NVIDIA Quadro K4000M Mac Edition ROM **
Genuine Native Boot Screen & Brightness Control​

View attachment 1740329

I've tested and put together the following ROM for the NVIDIA Quadro K4000M which will allow:
Genuine native brightness control
Genuine ‘gray’ early-boot screen


Pre-installation Requirements:
- iMac12,2 (27-inch Mid 2011) Mac-942B59F58194171B (Tested machine)
- BootROM: 87.0.0.0.0. Please use High Sierra to update your BootROM to latest version.
- GPU varient: N14E-Q3-A2
- GPU VRAM:
View attachment 1740318

I've made sure that the rom will report the correct size of vram this time: 4096MB. Please note, that there are cards that have the SAMSUNG vram chips, I do not know if they will work or not, you will have to tell me if you chose to purchase a SAMSUNG based card. I will update this post with any success or failures. Looking at the latencies table, I see entries for SAMSUNG ram there so I am guessing it will work.

I've tested it on a Windows 7 partition installation and works fine with Nvidia Quadro Driver version: 377.11 and BootCamp installtion: 5.0.5033

The vbios timings are near stock, I didn't want to adjust too much until we have more people using it. Feel free to adjust using Kepler Bios Tweaker and I will update the ROM on this post to reflect stable overclocks.


Post-installation Requirements:
Brightness Control Stepping Mod:
-Turn computer on, hold down Command(⌘)-R
-Choose Utilities > Terminal
-Enter:csrutil disable
-MacOS Catalina: requires you to make root writeable: sudo mount -uw /
-Reboot
-Download and open 'Kext Utility v2.6.6'

-Navigate to S/L/E (System/Library/Extensions)
-Copy "AppleBacklight.kext" to Desktop
-Edit: AppleBacklight.kext/Contents/Info.plist
-Scroll down to: IOKitPersonalities > AppleIntelPanelA > ApplePanels
-There you find several Apple LCD profiles.
-For the iMac 2011 27" machine locate:

<key>F10Ta007</key>
<data>
ABEABgALABQAHAAnADMAPwBOAFwAZwBzAIEAkQClAL8A2wD/
</data>

-Change the <data> section to:
ABEAAgA3AF8AigCzAOsBJAFnAakB1AIJAlQCogL4A00DlgRpBGk=

-Drag your modded kext into Kext Utility, allow it correct permissions
-Applebacklight.kext.bak folder will be created
-Reboot

The above data pattern will allow for a wider span of steppings for the brightness control and utilizes more of the capacity of the HD3000. If you have a different machine, your panel ID can be found by going to System Preferences > Displays > Color > Open Profile > mmod

Caveats post-install/Bugs:
The EFI rom unfortunately is based on a very old implementation of Tianocore, so a 16bit resolution glitch of UGA_DRAW_PROTOCOL is still present until I find a way to reprogram that. I'm loading the EFI module externally in a shell now to see why the EDID information is not being extracted properly.
Temporary solution: activate a sleep cycle and return, this should now clear the issue.

As stated previously these cards are based on a WSON flash package and therefore are much more difficult to recover from a bad flash. Please take precautions and verify flashing before rebooting.

View attachment 1740617 View attachment 1755447


Verified Installations:
@Fastord - K4000M, Samsung vram, original vbios: 80.04.5A.00.02 4/7/2021



"insanely great!"
-Steve Jobs

card on samsung vram flashed with last bios here downladed, doenst work. Stuck on high sierra desktop loading.

need help

 

[TaoFx]

Get a CH341A clip and flash the vBIOS found here on the thread. Another solution is to short two of the vBIOS chip pins on power on, this way you avoid loading the vBIOS which causes the whole POST to hang. If you hear the chime the iMac will boot into the Linux UBS key and you can reflash the card. You need to short the two middle pins of the chip on the top side (chip is located on the top right back side, as far as I remember).

Clip flashing is more easy…but the short trick works usually on the third or fourth attempt. You can also solder some wires to the two pins and short them during the power button pressing phase until you here the boot chime.

Hello.. I'm back after a while.
I will need your help!

I explain the situation: I have a 2011 21 inch iMac, I recovered an AMD WX 4150 graphics card in a Dell Precision laptop.
With the bios found on the thread, I was unable to boot on MacOS High Sierra. And the last bios I used bricked my graphics card… so you advised me to buy a CH341A clip for the unbrick.

So I bought the clip, disassembled the iMac and took out the graphics card. Being afraid of doing things wrong, would you be able to tell me what bios would work with the graphics card? I send pictures of everything I have. Thank you in advance for your answer!

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hello.. I'm back after a while.
I will need your help!

I explain the situation: I have a 2011 21 inch iMac, I recovered an AMD WX 4150 graphics card in a Dell Precision laptop.
With the bios found on the thread, I was unable to boot on MacOS High Sierra. And the last bios I used bricked my graphics card… so you advised me to buy a CH341A clip for the unbrick.

So I bought the clip, disassembled the iMac and took out the graphics card. Being afraid of doing things wrong, would you be able to tell me what bios would work with the graphics card? I send pictures of everything I have. Thank you in advance for your answer!

Check this post and pick the WX4150 (4GB) version from the zip file (WX4150_GOP.rom). The vBIOS chip is the one on top left of your card (GPU side). Pin 0 is marked with a small arrow, connect the red cable there.

You cannot really break the card using a wrong vBIOS, it will just no POST the iMac (like the last one), not perform, or show some performance and functionality problems.

Using this BIOS will still cause a black screen on High Sierra boot unless you connect an external display to the miniDP port (this is either a HS bug or a BIOS bug). It does not happen on any later macOS which you can easily install after flashing the card. Even using a small miniDP emulator stick will do the job.

Install the flashrom software as described on the first post using another system.

 

[TaoFx]

Check this post and pick the WX4150 (4GB) version from the zip file (WX4150_GOP.rom). The vBIOS chip is the one on top left of your card (GPU side). Pin 0 is marked with a small arrow, connect the red cable there.

You cannot really break the card using a wrong vBIOS, it will just no POST the iMac (like the last one), not perform, or show some performance and functionality problems.

Using this BIOS will still cause a black screen on High Sierra boot unless you connect an external display to the miniDP port (this is either a HS bug or a BIOS bug). It does not happen on any later macOS which you can easily install after flashing the card. Even using a small miniDP emulator stick will do the job.

Install the flashrom software as described on the first post using another system.

Thank you for your answer!

I edit this message, i’m just stupid lol (from the beginning i was connecting to the wrong chip)

after testing, I got this message… is this a bad sign?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thanks for your answer!
I spent several hours trying to flash the bios, however I really didn't succeed... and I can't understand why 😅

I tried on a Mac, on a Linux virtual machine as well as Windows.

Only the DEL power is on (not the RUN one), I plugged the clip into the 25XX. What i can do ?
I’m also using flashrom, i’m posting pictures.

Try to clip the chip and hold the clip on the chip using you hand. These products are cheap for a reason. It took me a long time to successfully flash using this kind of clip and eventually I bought an expensive Pomona clip.

But it will work for your single flash use case, after flashing you can use the Linux utility in future, again!

 

[TaoFx]

Try to clip the chip and hold the clip on the chip using you hand. These products are cheap for a reason. It took me a long time to successfully flash using this kind of clip and eventually I bought an expensive Pomona clip.

But it will work for your single flash use case, after flashing you can use the Linux utility in future, again!

Thank you! I keep it in the back of my mind
now that I've fixed the problem, when i try to read or flash a rom, I'm faced with a slightly more disturbing message... 😅

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thank you! I keep it in the back of my mind
now that I've fixed the problem, when i try to read or flash a rom, I'm faced with a slightly more disturbing message... 😅

Upper left corner...

Chip marked red, you can also recover from a bad flash by shorting the two green marked connections using a screwdriver when switching on the iMac until you hear the boot chime. The chime will be the acoustical proof the POST has succeeded. After the POST you can boot into Linux and flash normally, again.

Stole this picture, art work, short method, and description from @internetzel.

 

[TaoFx]

Upper left corner...

Chip marked red, you can also recover from a bad flash by shorting the two green marked connections using a screwdriver when switching on the iMac until you hear the boot chime. The chime will be the acoustical proof the POST has succeeded. After the POST you can boot into Linux and flash normally, again.

Stole this picture, art work, short method, and description from @internetzel.

If it does not work with the clip (since it is not recognized by flashrom), using a screwdriver is the only solution to solve the problem?…

Being not very good at disassembling and reassembling the iMac all the time, I preferred to avoid go through this step😅

 

[TaoFx]

Upper left corner...

Chip marked red, you can also recover from a bad flash by shorting the two green marked connections using a screwdriver when switching on the iMac until you hear the boot chime. The chime will be the acoustical proof the POST has succeeded. After the POST you can boot into Linux and flash normally, again.

Stole this picture, art work, short method, and description from @internetzel.

after many attempts, the best I could get was "Found Generic flash chip "unknown SPI chip (RDID)" (0 kB, SPI) on ch341a_spi." (on the right chip of course, and as you told me while holding the clip)
I guess it's not possible to make it work like that...

 

[TaoFx]

Hi all. what can i replace the IS25LQ040 bios chip with??? was installed on WX4150 HP. Need help

i found on the thread someone with the same chip as me (but with a Dell WX 4150) who apparently have a problem with his chip.
This chip is "unknown" by flashrom 1.2 (on Mac and Linux), i can't flash another bios... (after too many attempts)
I'm thinking about using a screwdriver to POST with the GPU on the iMac but i have no clue how to do this (like what is needed to be plugged, if it's an one time fix, etc...)

UPDATE : i'm really bad at computer science but i found something : the chip isn't known by any means by the current softwares like flashrom. I downloaded AsProgrammer on Windows, which is not able to recognize my chip either, but I saw the "chiplist" file, I observed and I found all the chips which the software officially supports... so I looked at the datasheet of the chip, compared the other chips present in the software, put the ID of the chip that it showed me and made it recognizable. I tried to read it with the software and... it worked! I didn't think something so stupid would work.

So I'll flash the working bios, and if the GPU works I'll share the modified software for future people who encounter the same problem.

UPDATE 2 : Flashing the bios actually worked.

I have entirely reassembled the iMac, used an MiniDP to HDMI to get into MacOS : the first time, i got the screen for 2 seconds and it immediately shutdown. After a reboot, it worked a little bit more, i tested Unigine (and showed 129 degrees celsius constantly) but after few seconds the iMac also shut down.
I did all that the night so i’m gonna sleep.

Tomorrow i’m gonna do another post with more details and updates.
If you have any suggestions to fix this problem of shutting down i will be happy!

A big thanks to Ausdauersportler for helping me a lot!

 

[MrZupp]

i found on the thread someone with the same chip as me (but with a Dell WX 4150) who apparently have a problem with his chip.
This chip is "unknown" by flashrom 1.2 (on Mac and Linux), i can't flash another bios... (after too many attempts)
I'm thinking about using a screwdriver to POST with the GPU on the iMac but i have no clue how to do this (like what is needed to be plugged, if it's an one time fix, etc...)

UPDATE : i'm really bad at computer science but i found something : the chip isn't known by any means by the current softwares like flashrom. I downloaded AsProgrammer on Windows, which is not able to recognize my chip either, but I saw the "chiplist" file, I observed and I found all the chips which the software officially supports... so I looked at the datasheet of the chip, compared the other chips present in the software, put the ID of the chip that it showed me and made it recognizable. I tried to read it with the software and... it worked! I didn't think something so stupid would work.

So I'll flash the working bios, and if the GPU works I'll share the modified software for future people who encounter the same problem.

UPDATE 2 : Flashing the bios actually worked.

I have entirely reassembled the iMac, used an MiniDP to HDMI to get into MacOS : the first time, i got the screen for 2 seconds and it immediately shutdown. After a reboot, it worked a little bit more, i tested Unigine (and showed 129 degrees celsius constantly) but after few seconds the iMac also shut down.
I did all that the night so i’m gonna sleep.

Tomorrow i’m gonna do another post with more details and updates.
If you have any suggestions to fix this problem of shutting down i will be happy!

A big thanks to Ausdauersportler for helping me a lot!

I had a similar case with a k3100m, I changed the power supply and it never powered off on me ever since.

 

[TaoFx]

I had a similar case with a k3100m, I changed the power supply and it never powered off on me ever since.

Thank you for your answer ! I'm going to look at this in more detail because I tried to analyze a lot of things and it was quite complicated to interpret. In addition, my power supply has slight white traces (in the back) maybe it has a link...

I'll sum up everything I've done:
I bought a 21 inch 2011 iMac, had a faulty laptop with a WX 4150 in it and decided to put it in the iMac.

So I proceeded to install it, just to note (I don't know what it's called sorry) the metal cross behind the graphics card didn't come off (compared to the original) so I left it as it is despite that it moved a little there was contact. I then installed a bios, two bios, three bios... I didn't have too much knowledge in the bios at that time, until I bricked the graphics card. A few weeks later I come back with a clip to flash it, however after many hours of trying I realized that the chip on my graphics card was not known to all flash software (IS25LQ040). So I ended up modifying the AsProgrammer program and making it readable, I put it here with a notice inside. (Note that the IS25LQ040 chip is tiny compared to the "normal" ones! it's super complicated to connect well, especially with a cheap clip found on Amazon)

After mounting the iMac it boots, connecting a MiniDP HDMI adapter to a display it displayed MacOS correctly, except it shuts down when it does too much. Looking at temperatures in Macs fan control, the graphics card when just doing web browsing is 65-75°C, which sounds like a lot. When running a benchmark (Unigine Valley), even after having the fans base on the graphics card probe, the iMac shuts down after a few seconds (with a rocket sound, by the way) . Note that I touched the heatsink after launching the benchmark and more than half an hour of activity, it was very hot. No doubt that the graphics card is in contact (even if it is not as much as the original)

I also inquired about the TDPs of the GPUs: The original HD 6750M GPU has a TDP of 35W, against 45W for the WX 4150. I think that lowering the TDP might work.

As MrZupp said, it could (and probably is) a power problem, these macs have more than a decade behind them, I wouldn't be surprised if they were reaching the end of their life.

I would also add that, during my bios tests, on MacOS I launched Unigine (without backlighting) and it worked very well, without crashing. When I ran it on Ubuntu and Windows (they had backlighting) it crashed like it does on the iMac. I don't really understand what's going on, but if anyone can solve this problem it would be a great help!

 

[dfranetic]

Let this be a gentle warning about MXM GPU to heatsink assembly and proper insulation: Don't skimp on Kapton tape.

All MXM GPUs have a lot of MLCCs (Multi-Layer Ceramic Capacitors) scattered all over the top and bottom of the PCB. The largest ones (which are often quite tall, by surface mount components standards) are there to filter various (local) power supplies to various parts of the board. What happens when they touch the heatsink? They create a short for at least one local power supply - nothing (really) catastrophic happens, because iMac's SMC detects this overcurrent condition and shuts the machine down.

Note that this type of failure can be really hard to detect: I had this happen to two machines (by now), both were ones that I finished quite early on as I jumped this new-GPU-in-old-iMac train, and both were my work machines. The last one started having random reboots after almost a year of regular use, until, one day, it simply shut down and would not power back on.

The problem: one of those tall MLCCs touched the heatsink and created a short. (Aluminium and copper will expand as they heat up, in unpredictable ways from that MLCC's point of view...) This example is of an HP WX4150 mounted onto an iMac 27' MXM-A heatsink. Spot the MLCC which I failed to insulate? I guess it's quite clear which part of the heatsink it touched...

In the second MXM-GPU-to-heatsink-mount I, of course, already knew what I did wrong. I think I don't have to worry about this kind of failure anymore now... (Yes, there is one MLCC, which I forgot to insulate before taking the photos below. I did insulate it before mounting the card onto the heatsink.)

 

[internetzel]

So I proceeded to install it, just to note (I don't know what it's called sorry) the metal cross behind the graphics card didn't come off (compared to the original) so I left it as it is despite that it moved a little there was contact.

That metal cross does come off easily after heating it up (or the glue between it and the board) using a hair dryer.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thank you for your answer ! I'm going to look at this in more detail because I tried to analyze a lot of things and it was quite complicated to interpret. In addition, my power supply has slight white traces (in the back) maybe it has a link...

I'll sum up everything I've done:
I bought a 21 inch 2011 iMac, had a faulty laptop with a WX 4150 in it and decided to put it in the iMac.

So I proceeded to install it, just to note (I don't know what it's called sorry) the metal cross behind the graphics card didn't come off (compared to the original) so I left it as it is despite that it moved a little there was contact. I then installed a bios, two bios, three bios... I didn't have too much knowledge in the bios at that time, until I bricked the graphics card. A few weeks later I come back with a clip to flash it, however after many hours of trying I realized that the chip on my graphics card was not known to all flash software (IS25LQ040). So I ended up modifying the AsProgrammer program and making it readable, I put it here with a notice inside. (Note that the IS25LQ040 chip is tiny compared to the "normal" ones! it's super complicated to connect well, especially with a cheap clip found on Amazon)

After mounting the iMac it boots, connecting a MiniDP HDMI adapter to a display it displayed MacOS correctly, except it shuts down when it does too much. Looking at temperatures in Macs fan control, the graphics card when just doing web browsing is 65-75°C, which sounds like a lot. When running a benchmark (Unigine Valley), even after having the fans base on the graphics card probe, the iMac shuts down after a few seconds (with a rocket sound, by the way) . Note that I touched the heatsink after launching the benchmark and more than half an hour of activity, it was very hot. No doubt that the graphics card is in contact (even if it is not as much as the original)

I also inquired about the TDPs of the GPUs: The original HD 6750M GPU has a TDP of 35W, against 45W for the WX 4150. I think that lowering the TDP might work.

As MrZupp said, it could (and probably is) a power problem, these macs have more than a decade behind them, I wouldn't be surprised if they were reaching the end of their life.

I would also add that, during my bios tests, on MacOS I launched Unigine (without backlighting) and it worked very well, without crashing. When I ran it on Ubuntu and Windows (they had backlighting) it crashed like it does on the iMac. I don't really understand what's going on, but if anyone can solve this problem it would be a great help!

Usually I put a 15mm x 15mm copper plate of 0.5 mm width between GPU chip and copper part of the heat sink to

1. guarantee optimal contact between GPU and cooling device
2. avoid contact of other parts of the graphics card with the heat sink (shorts)

This method has been added on the first post within the GPU tables where you also found the link to the correct vBIOS. And use under all circumstances the original Apple X-bracket. It will fit perfectly with this card.

 

[basslib]

Hi all, I have a mid-2010 <iMac11,2> iMac with macOS 12.6 and OC 0.4.11, I updated the GPU BIOS to the latest version and the graphics card works divinely and without the use of external drivers/tweaks. However, after the latest update, my iMac's internal audio device is no longer recognized by the system, effectively leaving me with no audio after booting up macOS. I learned with great excitement that Bluetooth now works, but what should I do to restore the audio?

 

[Mamorru]

Hello,
Does anybody got working sidecar on iMac 27 2011? my spec - i7 2600k, AMD S7100X Mac OS Catalina (dosdude)

 

[Kouiderdream]

Hello,
Does anybody got working sidecar on iMac 27 2011? my spec - i7 2600k, AMD S7100X Mac OS Catalina (dosdude)

Hallo
I have a question for the similar card that i am now trying to install at the moment i am blocked i did nt found how to mod the 3v wire to get back light working thanks

 

[Mamorru]

im not using 3v wire at all

Hallo
I have a question for the similar card that i am now trying to install at the moment i am blocked i did nt found how to mod the 3v wire to get back light working thanks

em, I did not done this, my backlight is working well(just I can't change the power of it - have to use brightness slider)
P.S. After each shutdown you have to do pram reset

 

[Kouiderdream]

im not using 3v wire at all

em, I did not done this, my backlight is working well(just I can't change the power of it - have to use brightness slider)
P.S. After each shutdown you have to do pram reset

Hallo
Thanks for your answer
The pram dont work by me
I installed Montery on Sdd with the old amd card and did opencore all ok with the old card just after swap to the s7100x black screen and no image on addionnsl display a had flashed the card with the vbios on the 1 thread