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iM 4,1-14,4 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade
- Thread starter MichaelDT
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CPU affects scores. They used an i3, which lowers the scores in general.
Does anyone know if something might be up with my open core usb stick? I‘m on my 21.5 inch 2011 imac with a K2100M. I use windows 7… but open core seems to work fine when I boot into the OSX partition.
But I usually want to use windows, and I’m not sure if it’s even using open core. Here is how I boot… I turn on the machine, and hold the button to select which boot. I choose the opencore USB. It goes to another screen where again, i can choose what to boot but opencore is there again. So I go into opencore again. Now, I can select OSX or Windows. I push windows, and it seems like the whole thing crashes and restarts. Then, this text appears on the screen, and windows 7 just starts booting.
Also, if I press the power button to start the machine and don’t press control to select the boot screen and choose opencore, this text still appears and just boots into windows.
This makes me think that I’m not even using the opencore usb at all when I’m in windows. Does that sound accurate? I don’t really have any issues with how this works tbh but I’m just wondering if I even need the USB stick plugged in.
But I usually want to use windows, and I’m not sure if it’s even using open core. Here is how I boot… I turn on the machine, and hold the button to select which boot. I choose the opencore USB. It goes to another screen where again, i can choose what to boot but opencore is there again. So I go into opencore again. Now, I can select OSX or Windows. I push windows, and it seems like the whole thing crashes and restarts. Then, this text appears on the screen, and windows 7 just starts booting.
Also, if I press the power button to start the machine and don’t press control to select the boot screen and choose opencore, this text still appears and just boots into windows.
This makes me think that I’m not even using the opencore usb at all when I’m in windows. Does that sound accurate? I don’t really have any issues with how this works tbh but I’m just wondering if I even need the USB stick plugged in.
For K2100m, Opencore is for installing OS newer than High Sierra and Windows UEFI
Opencore is conflicting with Windows 7 legacy mode (the one installed in your iMac)
Hello Everybody,
I am upgrading a Mid 2011 iMac 27" with an AMD FirePro M5100 GPU.
- I flashed a new VBIOS as discussed in this thread here (i have a red dell card, and flashed the hynix version from the bottom of the answer)
- Then since my original GPU was toast, I removed the Hard drive and connected to another Mac using an external case.
- Booted into this external drive and started OpenCore 0.4.6 TUI
- I have set OpenCore up to the original computer (iMac 12,2), and adjusted settings as follows:
- Set generic bootstrap > EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64
- Set metal GPU status > AMD Legacy GCN
- Then built and installed OpenCore to the EFI partition
After that I went on to replace the GPU.
Now when I start the mac, following the chime, I see a grey screen which later turns into a grey-red fuzz. See video here
I am running OS X High Sierra.
My question is, if this result should be attributed to the new GPU being faulty, or did I miss a step (or messed up) during the upgrade?
Thank you in advance!
I am upgrading a Mid 2011 iMac 27" with an AMD FirePro M5100 GPU.
- I flashed a new VBIOS as discussed in this thread here (i have a red dell card, and flashed the hynix version from the bottom of the answer)
- Then since my original GPU was toast, I removed the Hard drive and connected to another Mac using an external case.
- Booted into this external drive and started OpenCore 0.4.6 TUI
- I have set OpenCore up to the original computer (iMac 12,2), and adjusted settings as follows:
- Set generic bootstrap > EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64
- Set metal GPU status > AMD Legacy GCN
- Then built and installed OpenCore to the EFI partition
After that I went on to replace the GPU.
Now when I start the mac, following the chime, I see a grey screen which later turns into a grey-red fuzz. See video here
I am running OS X High Sierra.
My question is, if this result should be attributed to the new GPU being faulty, or did I miss a step (or messed up) during the upgrade?
Thank you in advance!
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Perhaps you can try with another vBIOS.
A guy also asked me about this issue (M5100 on iMac 21.5"), but he finally solved it himself by trying another vBIOS.
One of the most prolific contributors here is @Ausdauersportler. He has collated information, tools, AND ready-made Mac VBIOS files on his GitHub site ( https://github.com/Ausdauersportler/IMAC-EFI-BOOT-SCREEN/ ). Here you will find two folders of interest: GOP and EG2. As a minimum, the files in the GOP folder work well in conjunction with OpenCore Legacy Patcher. GOP versions will not show the Apple UEFI boot screens (this means black screen if you hold down the ALT/OPTION key during boot). However, OpenCore extends the UEFI boot sequence and is able to work using the UEFI standard GOP. Therefore, if you have the GOP VBIOS flashed onto your card AND the boot sequence includes OpenCore, then you can generally see the OC boot picker. As a general rule of thumb, once Mac OS begins to boot, the operating system can try to match your card to the available kernel extensions (KEXTS, in Windows terminology ”graphics card drivers”). Once a match is found the kernel can try to “fine-tune” the graphics stack, usually by reading the legacy VBIOS (a often referred to as the VGA VBIOS, PC VBIOS, or even just the VBIOS). At a minimum you’ll get the software framebuffer (no acceleration, not a good experience!). At best you will get a matched framebuffer which provides hardware acceleration! OCLP also helps here by adding back the dropped KEXTS for our older cards into the newer versions of Mac OS.
In the GOP folder there appears to be 3 files for the M5100. You might need do do some more research to figure out which one matches your card. Search this thread for the file name…
For completeness, there might be other hardware related issues with certain cards, such as the ability to turn on the display backlight. Lastly, as far as I know the EG2 version of the VBIOS files are there to try and get the Apple firmware (early) UEFI boot screens. Please correct me if I am mistaken! If you are going to try this route, it often involves modifying the Apple firmware too, which will require a chip programmer and clip because Apple has locked the ability to flash the UEFI firmware (for security).
Hi, I used Ausdauersportler's GOP route, and got the results shown on the video. I got the (red DELL) M5100 card with Hynix BFR memory on it, so I flashed the M5100-HynixBFR-GOP.rom onto the card. There did not seem to be any issues with the flash. I have OpenCore installed on the boot SSD's EFI partition, however I did that by attaching to another machine using an external case, so while I am confident, I could not 100% confirm if the machine boots into OpenCore.
As far as I can see the issues with the M5100 card and the iMac12,2 are related to sleep/weak, and backlight, not to actually booting up the machine, so I am not sure where the upgrade went sideways...
Additional note: I also tried to flash the EG2 vbios onto the card, got the same results. I did not dive into the hardware modifications though as I would much prefer the GOP route without the modifications...
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Did you try a new ssd and fresh installation? Since all EFI hidden loads on the drive itself. OR try a fresh install of High Sierra and then upgrade. All lost firmware will be corrected by high sierra. But it should be a fresh SSD install.
Hello all,
Been doing a lot of reading on this as I am looking to upgrade my daughters 12,2 iMac (Mid 2011, 27", currently with 6970m).
Looking at purchasing the WX7100.
I believe most of the process is laid out, but there is one aspect I would like to clarify before proceeding.
When it comes to flashing the card, am I able to put it into a PC tower I have and run the Windows based ATI Flash utility to flash the necessary firmware? This seems like it would be the simplest way to flash the card with systems I have available.
Been doing a lot of reading on this as I am looking to upgrade my daughters 12,2 iMac (Mid 2011, 27", currently with 6970m).
Looking at purchasing the WX7100.
I believe most of the process is laid out, but there is one aspect I would like to clarify before proceeding.
When it comes to flashing the card, am I able to put it into a PC tower I have and run the Windows based ATI Flash utility to flash the necessary firmware? This seems like it would be the simplest way to flash the card with systems I have available.
Technically, yes, if you can find an adapter MXM to PCIe that can enable your PC to recognize the WX7100.
This post has some photos of such adapter.
It's not a viable option, unless you are a seller who has to deal with a lot of flashing, considering the rarity and selling price of such adapters.
The zero cost option is using the iMac itself. Booting a computer blindly sounds scary, but it has been proved as the best option, saving both money and labor for common DIYers.
The hard core option is to desolder the vBIOS chip on the GPU, put it to a EFI chip flashing device and flash.
The DIY option is using a CH341a programmer with an 8-pin clip. But success ratio is not 100%.
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If you don’t want the hassle of flashing the card, there are people on AliExpress that sell cards (wx7100 etc.) already flashed and mounted on a heat sink.
Flashing is also not too bad if you follow the guide to create a Linux boot usb and log in to the machine remotely to flash the card.
Hello, this vbios can't be flashed on the msi, only two leds will appear after booting. I see that the dell uses Hynix and the msi uses Samsung. Is this the reason why it can't be used?
I had an issue similar to yours, see this post. https://forums.macrumors.com/thread....1596614/page-739?post=31057456#post-31057456
I think you might have the same problem because my issue occured when I tried to build the 12,2 OCLP on a different imac/macbook also. I think it's a bug in the OCLP tool (config.plist setting), probably not the rom flash.
I have in fact flashed a couple M5100's for the 12,2 platform. First one I flashed using the M5100-Dell-RED-GOP-BLUE_OBJI-VRAM-HYNIX-DVS0.rom. That's the one that had this issue with OCLP. The second M5100 I flashed with M5100-DELL-RED-GOP-BLUE_OBJI-HYNIX.rom I don't remember having an issue with that one, but I'm sure I built OCLP BEFORE installed the new card.
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Thanks for the clarification. Seems like I will probably go the blind boot route.
However with a quick search, it does appear basic adapters (designed for crypto mining) have become rather cheap. I think the blind boot should be right. (See: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/329...338541017!sea!AU!0&curPageLogUid=fdyswCpY39dg).
And just as a final sanity check, as I don't have the tools necessary to mod a heatsink. With a 12,2 iMac (Mid 2011 27") that has a stock 6970m (MXM-B), am I correct in my understanding that the WX7100 will fit without having to grind off parts of the heatsink?
Thanks for the info. Thanks also to Tim_iMac.
not sure if you have a drill or can borrow one but I was able to mod the heatsink by using a large drill bit and just drilling several 5cm deep holes around the areas where the coils touch the metal on the heatsink.
Good luck with that PCIe x1 adapter. Failure rate is quite high.
I just can't understand why people keep leaning to the not-the-best option?
Tools I have used to mod the heat sink:
An AC powered drill with 4mm, then 6mm, then 8mm drill bits. => Very tiresome and ugly.
An AC powered drill with cone sanding bits => worked nice but took a lot of time. the corner was not very smooth.
An AC powered angle grinder => The best, it ground out the heatsink within 5 minutes, with very beautiful finishing shape.
So I skipped your video previously. I've just taken a look at it now...
The good news is that your machine appears to be booting okay into MacOS. The bad news is that the display output is badly corrupted (which is obvious). It's hard to tell at this stage whether it is a bad/incompatible VBIOS flash, or wether it is faulty hardware.
Here are some things to try (this is what I would do)...
- Reboot, and repeatedly press one of the arrow keys (it doesn't really matter which one). This should boot past the Apple EFI into the OpenCore Boot Chooser and stop there (because of the key presses). Is the graphics output stable and clear at this point? If yes, that's good, it means that the GOP-EFI part is okay and hopefully the hardware is also okay. If no, that's bad, and I'd start to assume the hardware is bad.
- Things to try if the OpenCore Boot Chooser is not clearly visible...
- Reboot the iMac and perform a PRAM Reset (aka NVRAM). Apple's EFI will see the key combination apple-alt-P-R (hold all 4 keys after you hear the first chime, release when you hear a second chime). Alternatively, if you can see the OpenCore Boot picker, pressing the spacebar will show additional options, including a Reset NVRAM option. Does that help? Post #1 of this thread clearly states that some GCN v1-v3 cards have issues when fitted to iMac12,x platforms. PRAM reset might help...
- Go to TechPowerup and see if you can find the original VBIOS for your card (vanilla PC style). Flash that onto the card. How? Keep the card in the iMac, powered on and booted (even if the display is still a mess). Then use SSH from your other machine to get to the command line of your iMac. NOTE: To use SSH you need to have Remote Login enabled in System Prefs > Sharing of the iMac. If Remote Login isn't enabled, you might want to pull the iMac hard drive and fit it to your other machine (as you mentioned in your first post), boot it there, make the settings change, the refit to the iMac. Boot the iMac into Mac OS (even with the screen corruption). Use SSH from your other machine to reach the command line of the iMac, and then use the flashing tools from there. When I did my build, my graphics card was a HP which shipped without a VBIOS! This causes Mac OS to kernel panic, reboot, panic, reboot in a loop! Argh! To solve this I used an external drive with Linux Ubuntu installed and booted from this. Then I could use the VBIOS flashing tools from Linux. I mention this because it too might help you... If you successfully flash the vanilla VBIOS for your make/model of card, try booting the iMac. You will not see the initial boot sequence (not Apple, and not OpenCore), however, when the Mac OS kernel takes over during boot, I would expect the card to provide stable video. If you still have messed up video, then I would suspect a hardware fault. Consider cutting your losses and finding/purchasing a more compatible card (sorry to be the bearer of bad news)
- If at this point you've got clear video, then it's a case of modding the VBIOS to have the GOP Optional Rom part....
That picture shows a Quadro 3000M, not to be confounded with a Quadro K3000M. No metal support with a Quadro 3000M.i found this card for upgrade my imac 2011 21,5.
It's a good card?
any issue?
sorry, i'm newbie
I am using a Dell 0308VY 109-C95847-00D-02 V345 VER:1.1 WX7100, and I did not observe any contact with the heatsink prior to assembly.
It "fits" in every way possible.
Of course (all this is not entirely a simple process), it seems that something from the cart was making contact with the heatsink, as my first-boot was unsuccessful.
I de-assembled everything, again, applied a cautionary (if not excessive) amount of Klapton tape to anything that even remotely appeared to approach to the heatsink (apart from the chips that need to touch), and re-assembled.
Further booting has been a success
I initially attempted to use a large, non-adhesive Klapton-like sheet (originally intended for use in a 3D-print situ) to cover everything, but I just couldn't get it to align appropriately (and consistently). Switched to using self-adhesive tape in a piecemeal approach.
Thank you very much. Will make sure I have some tape on hand.
I am using a Dell 0308VY 109-C95847-00D-02 V345 VER:1.1 WX7100, and I did not observe any contact with the heatsink prior to assembly.
It "fits" in every way possible.
Of course (all this is not entirely a simple process), it seems that something from the cart was making contact with the heatsink, as my first-boot was unsuccessful.
I de-assembled everything, again, applied a cautionary (if not excessive) amount of Klapton tape to anything that even remotely appeared to approach to the heatsink (apart from the chips that need to touch), and re-assembled.
Further booting has been a success
I initially attempted to use a large, non-adhesive Klapton-like sheet (originally intended for use in a 3D-print situ) to cover everything, but I just couldn't get it to align appropriately (and consistently). Switched to using self-adhesive tape in a piecemeal approach.
I used to think like you.
Later on, I discovered that it would be better to do like Apple did: applying kapton tap on the heatsink instead of the card.
phew, 810 pages! I have no idea really where to even start.
I have a 2011 27". Can someone just recommend a card thats $100 or less that can be flashed for boot screen? Currently has the 6970m.
I have a 2011 27". Can someone just recommend a card thats $100 or less that can be flashed for boot screen? Currently has the 6970m.