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

[Eerbeer]

In a couple of days the new GPU for my iMac will arrive. Then the adventure will begin. I bought all the things I needed from the first post. Can I use superglue to relocate the ODD temperature sensor and glue it on the sink?

The brand that I got is from: Everbuild super glue. Can I use this? Thanks in advance.

 

[spacebiscuit]

I've successfully installed Sur on my iMac, but I am tempted to try Ventura. I read on the first page that the wifi needs to be upgraded to: BCM94360 or BCM943602 compatible card. If I search fleabay for the "BCM94360" there are cards from macbooks but I believe these use a different interface as they have more gold connectors than the card in a 2011 imac.

Can anyone recommend a card that will work, presumably it needs to be swapped out for the existing card?

 

[sunrisedx]

If you plan to modify iMac firmware and use EG2 VBIOS, I'd recommend a Venus card (eg. M5100). M6100 is a Saturn card and only offers a non-backlit (hence nearly invisible) EFI boot screen. Unless, of course, you need that extra performance from M6100...

Is there a black EFI splash screen solution for M6100?

 

[daillest319]

Sorry if this was answered already but, I recently Upgraded my 2010 and a 2011 iMac. I installed a k2100m gpu and 1tb ssd on boht machines. i Ran Opencore and everything runs amazing on both. I have notice one issue though. When I try to play a movie on apple tv app it never workson either machine. It plays the preview perfect, but I'm never able to play a movie. When I play a movie it just closes the movie. I installed and opened Videoproc and noticed hardware acceleration is off on both. Is there any fix for this?

Can I turn on Hardware acceleration? if yes, then how?

 

[Dead_Logo]

Does anyone know the program to control imac fans on windows,no program detects fans(imac 27 2010)?

 

[Eerbeer]

Today was the big day! I installed the Quadro K2100M. Mac Os X High Sierra runs fine. I glued the ODD sensor on the GPU card. Could someone please tell me if that sensor is still working?

I am afraid of the risk to burn up my GPU. Beceause it's says ''-'' in the right side of Macs Fan Control. The ODD fan is in my opinion to audible...

Which settings are the best for now?

 

[Soyer]

Does anyone know the program to control imac fans on windows,no program detects fans(imac 27 2010)?

Macs fan control - Mac OS and Windows

 

[B S Magnet]

Today was the big day! I installed the Quadro K2100M. Mac Os X High Sierra runs fine. I glued the ODD sensor on the GPU card. Could someone please tell me if that sensor is still working?

I am afraid of the risk to burn up my GPU. Beceause it's says ''-'' in the right side of Macs Fan Control.

It means that the system is not receiving data from the sensor. If you can, double-check to verify that the sensor cable is properly connected and seated to its socket on the logic board, and that nothing is pinching or shorting out those wires (if I recall, it’s a twisted pair of two wires). If so, some kapton tape ought to fix any place where wire sheathing has been exposed.

 

[davidg5678]

Today was the big day! I installed the Quadro K2100M. Mac Os X High Sierra runs fine. I glued the ODD sensor on the GPU card. Could someone please tell me if that sensor is still working?

I am afraid of the risk to burn up my GPU. Beceause it's says ''-'' in the right side of Macs Fan Control. The ODD fan is in my opinion to audible...

Which settings are the best for now?

Because you have modified the ODD sensor, I think it is okay that Macs Fan Control says "-" with regard to the GPU temperature reading. If all the fans in the iMac are running at full blast though, then you have a wiring problem and need to double-check that all the sensors are plugged in properly.

I believe that the point of the sensor modification is to ensure that the optical drive fan will kick in when the GPU gets too hot. The iMac can no longer directly tell that the GPU itself is hot from the GPU's internal sensor (inside the GPU die), so what relocating the ODD sensor does is trick the iMac's automatic fan controller into thinking the optical drive is too hot (and trying to cool the optical drive down) when in reality the sensor is detecting the GPU heatsink temperature and cooling off your graphics card.

My understanding is that you can roughly confirm that the sensor readings are more or less reliable by comparing the temperature of the optical drive with the GPU heatsink in Macs Fan control.

If you are going to use Macs Fan control anyway, I don't think that the sensor readings are as vital because the iMac fans are controlled manually by the program, rather than by the computer motherboard automatically. The modification you performed is still handy, as there are sometimes situations where the iMac's GPU is too hot and the Macs fan control software isn't running to cool it down for some reason.

 

[Eerbeer]

It means that the system is not receiving data from the sensor. If you can, double-check to verify that the sensor cable is properly connected and seated to its socket on the logic board, and that nothing is pinching or shorting out those wires (if I recall, it’s a twisted pair of two wires). If so, some kapton tape ought to fix any place where wire sheathing has been exposed.

I double check it.. the sensor cable is plugged in. Everything is attached. What can I do now?

 

[B S Magnet]

I double check it.. the sensor cable is plugged in. Everything is attached. What can I do now?

And you verified with a close inspection that all the insulation on the sensor wires have not been abraded/rubbed off/peeled away? I ask because I ran into this issue with a temperature sensor a couple of years ago and kept seeing nothing amiss until I went to closely inspect all the insulation and found a very tiny spot with exposed wire which, in my case, was shorting out on the case.

Beyond this — if you’re still having trouble, you might want to look into getting a used sensor-and-wire replacement from a place like PC-Hub, PowerBook Medic, or eBay.

 

[internetzel]

I double check it.. the sensor cable is plugged in. Everything is attached. What can I do now?

To me everything related to the hardware seems to be OK. The fans should run at lowest level if set to be controlled automatically.
The temperature levels that you have set manually are probably too low, which is causing the high fan speed; you can leave them set to automatically now.

 

[TigerA]

I double check it.. the sensor cable is plugged in. Everything is attached. What can I do now?

You have done an unnecessary check and risked breaking the LCD ribbon cable along the way!
The MFC reading is perfectly normal. After installing the K2100M, the GPU die temperature reading is broken due to addr/IQ conflict. But your GPU temp sensor is still working: It shows GPU heatsink Temperature at 33Cº. By moving the ODD temp sensor on to GPU heatsink, it provides an extra protection whereby when your iMac is turned on but not in normal macOS state.
This issue has been discussed a few times in the past.
DO NOT buy another temp sensor! It's absolutely unnecessary and waste of money, effort, time, and produce more unnecessary waste !

 

[Johnny Sanzimippi]

Hi all!

I would like to report you a successful GPU upgrade on my 21.5" Mid-2010 iMac.

The iMac was already been upgraded in 2021 from stock (dead) ATI Radeon HD 4670 to an NVIDIA Quadro K1100M.
This time I went for an AMD FirePro M5100 in order to be able to install macOS Monterey while retaining OTA updates and have slightly improved performance as a bonus.

The card was very cheap (half the K1100M) from China, it has red PCB and SK Hynix "AFR" RAM chips.
As you can see Geekbench scores are pretty high (especially compared to the K1100M), temperature reading in Macs Fan Control works as intended, I'm very pleased so far.

Flashing the card using latest version of Linux USB via SSH required a bit of know how, but worked first time, no issues at all.

Getting the SSD ready with Open Core Legacy Patcher is very easy if you have another Mac to prepare it in advance. Select "iMac11.2" as target model and in "developer settings" --> "MXM - GCN1-3" was all it needed to boot.
I have to report that OCLP 0.5.3 is bugged ATM for Monterey for some reason (maybe it's a well known problem, I didn't check in advance, so I apologize).
Safari 16 repeatedly crashed saying "SafariPreferencesPanel crashed" or similar. OTA update shows up, but failed right after trying to download macOS 12.6.2 throwing an error that said something like: "This Mac is not allowed to install the update". I tried different settings regarding SMBIOS, to no avail.

I reverted to OCLP 0.4.11 and everything worked as intended. As I also have upgraded wi-fi/Bluetooth I have SIP enabled, AirPlay/Continuity works fine and OTA update to 12.6.2 worked flawlessly.

Thanks to all community and developers of OCLP and ROM needed to keep my old friend still relevant going into 2023

Spoiler: Photos

 

[Stefanox2410]

When powering on, hold down Cmd-V before, during, and after the power-on chime. Let go once the screen goes from the usual light grey to a text-only mode (verbose boot mode), and watch for what the text displays. Once it hangs, take a picture of that and post it here.

Then I guess someone with Nvidia VBIOS experience might need to create a special VBIOS for your card - but that should be much easier if you could upload the original VBIOS from your card here.

Hello,Thanks for helping me, in the meantime nikey created another bios for me by looking at the photos of the card having ram bfr. remains the same, same screen, both on 2011 and 2010, I thought it's a chip problem, even if it seems strange, so I also tried a minimal reflow but it remains the same. I enclose everything

 

[Stefanox2410]

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 /
-You can download 'Hackintool v3.05' , navigate to

menu, use the

icon at the bottom to disable gatekeeper and mount the disk in read/write mode.
-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:
-16bit resolution glitch of UGA_DRAW_PROTOCOL - temporary solution: activate a sleep cycle and return, this should now clear the issue.

warning: please remember this is a WSON based card. You will be unable to recover from a bad flash with clip.

in the meantime I have recovered a k3100m 4gb, I had to work. I flashed rom 1, everything seems ok, perfect benchmark except sometimes it jerks for a few seconds..,, the most important thing is that looking at the guide I should change the applebacklight.kext but even giving the permissions it gives me this error , I disabled everything I don't understand, is it important to change this string? i use big sur

 

[inck243]

Im trying to flash...

5 root@grml /lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb1/flash # ls                                                                                                :(
AMD  Backups  GTX  QUADRO  README  amdvbflash  nvflash_linux
root@grml /lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb1/flash # ./nvflash_linux -f -p 0 QUADRO/K4100M_BR.ROM 

NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.414.0)
Simplified Version For OEM Only
Firmware image filename must have a valid extension. ( .rom .nvr .efr .efirom )

5 root@grml /lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb1/flash #

any idea whats wrong?? I'm in SSH right now.

 

[inck243]

If anyone is interested I have updated and modified the awesome grml-linux vbios flash boot disk that @xanderon shared with the macrumors community.

The changes include adding amdvbflash, thanks to @Ausdauersportler add-on, all the current ROMS from post 1 and a local Backup directory to store your backed up original ROMS directly on the Bootable USB using the persistency function in grml as default.

By doing this the directory structure has changed so please see the detailed guide below on instructions for using this modified bootable USB.

Create your USB using my modified @xanderon boot disk and connect to your target machine via SSH as outlined in @xanderson post HERE.

At root type:

lsblk

This will list list your mounted disks and is important as this disk order may change, sda/sdb/sdc, depending on what disks you have connected, how fast they are loaded by GRML etc, therefore the path to your working directory may change. You will see a example of this if you look at my terminal.txt file, I flashed 1 AMD and 1 NVIDIA GPU on seperate Macs.

In terminal copy the path to the root of your Flash USB, Example:

/lib/live/mount/persistence/sdd2

cd paste and add /flash to get to the directory:

cd /lib/live/mount/persistence/sdd2/flash

Press enter, you will now be in your working directory.

root@grml ~ # /lib/live/mount/persistence/sdd2/flash

In this example I will be using amdvbflash to backup and flash my stock AMD apple vbios.
1st - lets look at the working directory:

ls

2nd - Verify your adapter is recognised:

./amdvbflash -i

3rd - save a backup of your original bios to the Backup folder on your USB.

./amdvbflash -s 0 Backups/Original_Vbios.rom

4th - Verify the bios is saved to your Backups folder:

cd Backups
ls

Now if your paranoid that when you shut down your bios will be gone you can stop, shutdown and actually check the USB drive Backups folder.

View attachment 1749833

5th - flash new bios for example:

./amdvbflash -f -p 0 AMD/WX4150_GOP.ROM

WARNING: There is no pause asking you if you wish to continue as in nvflash so make sure you have your backup and are flashing the correct ROM.

You will be greeted with some code similar to this verifying the process is complete:

AMDVBFLASH version 4.71, Copyright (c) 2020 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Old SSID: 0B00
New SSID: 0B00
Old P/N: 113-C29609-103
New P/N: 113-C29609-103
Old DeviceID: 6720
New DeviceID: 6720
Old Product Name: Apple K62 Blackcomb XT C29609/C29611 GDDR5 64Mx32 2GB
New Product Name: Apple K62 Blackcomb XT C29609/C29611 GDDR5 64Mx32 2GB
Old BIOS Version: 013.011.000.020.017256
New BIOS Version: 013.011.000.020.017256
Flash type: M25P10/c
Burst size is 256
20000/20000h bytes programmed
20000/20000h bytes verified

Restart System To Complete VBIOS Update.

Shutdown and hope for the best

shutdown now

For NVIDIA cards the process is the same but the nvflash_linux commands will be different see my attached Terminal example.txt if you need more info. Also attached a quick visual guide and both Nvidia/AMD flash tools help text.

Enjoy.

I'm trying to flash with this linux USB drive but it's not working. I keep getting this error:

NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.414.0)
Simplified Version For OEM Only
Firmware image filename must have a valid extension. ( .rom .nvr .efr .efirom )

i wasn't able to update the bootrom with high sierra because I can't even load OSX on this machine. The old graphics card had already failed. Will that change anything here?

 

[The_Croupier]

I'm trying to flash with this linux USB drive but it's not working. I keep getting this error:

NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.414.0)
Simplified Version For OEM Only
Firmware image filename must have a valid extension. ( .rom .nvr .efr .efirom )

i wasn't able to update the bootrom with high sierra because I can't even load OSX on this machine. The old graphics card had already failed. Will that change anything here?

Make sure the vbios you are trying to flash ends in .rom

 

[inck243]

Make sure the vbios you are trying to flash ends in .rom

yea it does :/


./nvflash_linux -f -p 0 QUADRO/K4100M_BR.rom

./nvflash_linux -f -p 0 QUADRO/K4100M_BR.rom

NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.414.0)
Simplified Version For OEM Only
Firmware image filename must have a valid extension. ( .rom .nvr .efr .efirom )

these are the files in the QUADRO folder

root@grml ..ve/mount/persistence/sdb1/flash/quadro # ls
K610M_EG2.rom  K1100.rom      K2000.rom  K3000M_STE3.ROM  K3100M_BFR.rom  K4100M_BR.rom   K5000M_UGA.rom  k5000mUGA_S.rom
K1000.rom      K1100M_0E.bin  K2100.rom  K3100M_AFR.rom   K4000M_UGA.rom  K4100M_UGA.rom  K5100M_UGA.rom

is it a bug? i'm pretty sure im doing it right.

 

[The_Croupier]

Check your code, your using nvflash not amdvbflash.
Take a look at my example text file.

 

[Eerbeer]

To me everything related to the hardware seems to be OK. The fans should run at lowest level if set to be controlled automatically.
The temperature levels that you have set manually are probably too low, which is causing the high fan speed; you can leave them set to automatically now.

I am very glad to hear that. I updated to Monterey and everything works perfectly. Thanks to you guys.
Thanks for all the best advices and help!

If I set the fans to automatic in Mac Fan Control, then I don't hear the fans. It is really quiet. Just like the stock setup. The only thing is, is that the GPU gets a temperature of 50 degrees. Is that okay?

I now have a stock i5 in my iMac 12,1. Would you guys recommend to update to intel i7 2600k? Or would you guys advice more RAM instead of the current 8GB? Or do both? I only use the Microsoft Office programs and Youtube / Google Chrome / Google Drive at the same time...

I wish you guys all the best for the new year!

 

[inck243]

Check your code, your using nvflash not amdvbflash.
Take a look at my example text file.

I have an Nvidia card though, not AMD. But also, tried both... the AMDvbflash says "adapter not found"

root@grml ~ # lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0    7:0    0 259.9M  1 loop /lib/live/mount/rootfs/grml64-small.squashfs
sdb      8:16   1   1.8G  0 disk
└─sdb1   8:17   1   1.8G  0 part /lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb1
sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom
root@grml ~ # /lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb1/flash
root@grml /lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb1/flash # ls
AMD  Backups  GTX  QUADRO  README  amdvbflash  nvflash_linux
root@grml /lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb1/flash # ./amdvbflash -i
AMDVBFLASH version 4.71, Copyright (c) 2020 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Adapter not found
1 root@grml /lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb1/flash # ./amdvbflash -s 0 Backups/Original_vbioss.rom
AMDVBFLASH version 4.71, Copyright (c) 2020 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Adapter not found
1 root@grml /lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb1/flash # ./amdvbflash -f -p 0 quadro/k4100m_br.rom
AMDVBFLASH version 4.71, Copyright (c) 2020 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Adapter not found

   ERROR: 0FL01
1 root@grml /lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb1/flash #

The card seems to be recognized...

5 root@grml /lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb1/flash # ./nvflash_linux --list  :(

NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.414.0)
Simplified Version For OEM Only
NVIDIA display adapters present in system:
<0> Quadro K4100M        (10DE,11B7,1028,15CD) H:--:NRM  S:00,B:01,D:00,F:00
root@grml /lib/live/mount/persistence/sdb1/flash #

How do I get to your text file? Do you mean the readme? I opened that with textedit and that has commands using NVflash which i tried but it says the same problem with use a .ROM file. Thx for the help.. sorry for my ignorance, i usually figure these things out but i'm not familiar with using terminal prompts.

 

[nikey22]

I've encountered the same black screen delay (~45 sec) with my iMac12,2 and Nvidia GTX880M install. This build has OCLP (0.5.1) and a UEFI install of Windows10 on a separate SSD (ODD replacement). Currently there is no internal speakers working but that should be resolved using a DVD (MBR) Win install setup.

@nikey22 did you ever try the 880M under Windows 10?

Yes, the GTX880M will work perfectly with zero login delay.

Technically, it is a hybrid-MBR installation that you will need to create.

Remember, that in 2011, for Apple, there was a growing drive to transition away from EFI and adopt UEFI and this had some partition implications. Apple finalized the integration in 2012. So all iMacs in 2012+ should have appropriate UEFI bootcamp drivers. Therefore, I have noticed better success with Legacy win10 installations in the earlier iMac models.

Please follow this guide I created to install Windows 10 in Legacy mode. It is technical, but I have replicated it a dozen times and it works perfectly well as long as Win10 is able to recognize the Vendor/Device ID of the upgrade GPU.

For example, for the GTX880M:
- boosted to 1006Mhz GPU, 1300Mhz Mem
- Win10 loads the 389.12 drivers

Enjoy your insanely great install & Happy New Year everyone!

 

[internetzel]

I am very glad to hear that. I updated to Monterey and everything works perfectly. Thanks to you guys.
Thanks for all the best advices and help!

If I set the fans to automatic in Mac Fan Control, then I don't hear the fans. It is really quiet. Just like the stock setup. The only thing is, is that the GPU gets a temperature of 50 degrees. Is that okay?

I now have a stock i5 in my iMac 12,1. Would you guys recommend to update to intel i7 2600k? Or would you guys advice more RAM instead of the current 8GB? Or do both? I only use the Microsoft Office programs and Youtube / Google Chrome / Google Drive at the same time...

I wish you guys all the best for the new year!

50°C to 60°C is absolutely OK - while the difference between the GPU heatsink and ODD (sensor moved to GPU heatsink) temperature values must not exceed 10°C; it would better be less than 5°C.
A quad core i5 and 8 GB RAM is what I stayed with as well - no noticeable performance gain to expect for your use cases.