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

[Shnite]

Amethyst is a sub architecture of Tonga. Previous editors will not work because the offsets have all been changed in the Amethyst cards, they use dynamic GPU voltages and speeds and have an array style selection depending on usage. I've labelled these mVL, mVM, and mVH for low, medium, high.

Please visit my github to get the latest version https://github.com/nikey22/AmethystBiosEditor
If you have a different Amethyst GPU ID, let me know and I will add it to the application in a future version.

Is AmethystBiosEditor suitable for editing only your BIOS or is it possible from Ausdauersportler?

I adjusted Ausdauersportler BIOS, but the idle consumption did not change - 25W.

 

[piwikiwi]

Hi there, I am happily running Sonoma on my 2010 iMac 11.2. Full disclosure: full functionality is not available, it only reliably runs basic apps but looks good doing it.

I am somewhat curious at the recommendation to “upgrade to a Metal GPU” on the OCLP website (and to a lesser extent here on MR where it is clearly not for everyone) though.

In reading all the posts in the last few months by people that have “upgraded to a Metal GPU” or that have tried and failed there is a very clear trend that the upgrade is at best hit or miss and only for those that are well-versed in custom BIOS use AND brave.

Dont get me wrong; I think all the work done by the people that develop OCLP and such is amazing and really useful.I love it. But surely the recommendation to upgrade the GPU on these nonmetal Macs is misplaced for all but a select few Mac users until a more reliable upgrade path is available, if ever?

Or am I missing the point?

Thanks for all the great work and advice in these threads everyone 🙏🙏🙏

 

[unclemiltie]

When you first look at the upgrade process it seems daunting. You've got to figure out which GPU to buy, how much "modification" you want to do, etc. It's a big disassembly and you have to pretty much disassemble the entire machine. In one of those "while you're in there" you might also consider upgrading the CPU chip since the i7 versions are pretty cheap used. If you put in an SSD and one of the MXM-A GPUs into it you should have enough power to upgrade the processor.

And you hvae to learn a bit of linux to flash the BIOS onto the GPU, the USB stick referenced here is actually pretty easy if you have another system to remote login to the target.


I'm in the process of updating my "last" older iMac (11,3) to a metal GPU, I've done two 12,2 iMacs so far (one K3100M and one WX7100) and both are working quite well running Monterey. I got an HP WX4150 and just put the 0-ohm resistors on it today.

yes, there are some issues, but most of them have work-arounds as far as I can tell. One of my 12,2's, the one with the K3100, won't come back from sleep but I just disabled it and moved on.

 

[stephengrenfell]

I have an iMac 12.2 with the GPU upgraded (several years ago) to GTX780M running the ROM “NVIDIA GeForce GTX780M by nikey22”

This machine has been happily running OCLP 0.3.1 with Big Sur 11.3 for several years.

However since the SSD failed a few weeks ago I decided now was the time to update the OS.

So installed OCLP 1.0.1 and Ventura 13.6

All seemed ok for a few days, however since yesterday it won’t wake from sleep.

Anyone else with this iMac / GPU config tried Ventura ?.

 

[Shnite]

So at least for Linux performance I have to recheck thermal paste / K5 / fans to lower the temps or even try a little undervolting (GPU runs with 850mV).

Is there any way to see the GPU voltage in macOS?

 

[unclemiltie]

I have an iMac 12.2 with the GPU upgraded (several years ago) to GTX780M running the ROM “NVIDIA GeForce GTX780M by nikey22”

This machine has been happily running OCLP 0.3.1 with Big Sur 11.3 for several years.

However since the SSD failed a few weeks ago I decided now was the time to update the OS.

So installed OCLP 1.0.1 and Ventura 13.6

All seemed ok for a few days, however since yesterday it won’t wake from sleep.

Anyone else with this iMac / GPU config tried Ventura ?.

I have a 12,2 with a K3100 GPU in it and it has never been able to return from sleep since I put the new GPU in it. All of the suggestions that I've seen on the forums don't work. My solution was to go into the settings and have the system never sleep (it puts the display to sleep but not the system)

 

[unclemiltie]

How much energy does your WX7100 consume when idle?

Release 6.26 · CozmoNate/HWSensors

HWMonitor: Removed autoupdater (Sparkle framework) HWMonitor: added TcaseMax override to SMART config, possible to override overheating temperature for specific HDD GPUSensors: Inital support for ...

github.com

what tool do you use to get that information?

I can't seem to figure out the CozmoNate stuff

 

[Shnite]

what tool do you use to get that information?

https://github.com/CozmoNate/HWSensors/releases/download/6.26/HWSensors.6.26.1440.pkg.zip

 

[stephengrenfell]

I have a 12,2 with a K3100 GPU in it and it has never been able to return from sleep since I put the new GPU in it. All of the suggestions that I've seen on the forums don't work. My solution was to go into the settings and have the system never sleep (it puts the display to sleep but not the system)

I'll try your method. Sleep mode seems somewhat temperamental on these GPU modded iMacs.

Thanks.

 

[unclemiltie]

How much energy does your WX7100 consume when idle?

Release 6.26 · CozmoNate/HWSensors

HWMonitor: Removed autoupdater (Sparkle framework) HWMonitor: added TcaseMax override to SMART config, possible to override overheating temperature for specific HDD GPUSensors: Inital support for ...

github.com

This is pretty much idle on the WX7100 system. (reported by Monterey as Radeon RX 480 8GB). It is driving two displays, the internal and a 1280x1024 external display.

 

[unclemiltie]

I'll try your method. Sleep mode seems somewhat temperamental on these GPU modded iMacs.

Thanks.

Yea, my WX7100 iMac 12,2 returns from sleep just fine. I'm in the middle of doing a WX4150 into a 11,3 so we'll see what happens there. But the K3100 in the 12,2 won't return from sleep.

 

[unclemiltie]

and for completeness, here's the K3100

 

[Shnite]

This is pretty much idle on the WX7100 system.

37.8W - it's too much in idle mode.

S7100X 100 W (TGP) and 25 W (idle) - a difference of 4 times - may be due to the fact that the S7100X is a server card?

Here the difference between the cards (idle/max) is from 5 to 76 times.

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/asrock-arc-a580-challenger/38.html

 

[Shnite]

and for completeness, here's the K3100

TDP 75W (max) -> 23.09 W (idle) it is to too much.

 

[unclemiltie]

so what do I do about this? The system is not generating a lot of heat, when idle it's not even really warm to the touch.

 

[stephengrenfell]

This is pretty much idle on the WX7100 system. (reported by Monterey as Radeon RX 480 8GB). It is driving two displays, the internal and a 1280x1024 external display.

What do the "Zone 1 Average" and "Zone 3 Average" Wattage numbers represent ?.

A GTX780M shows less than 6W at idle. But "Zone 3 Average" is more than 15W

 

[Shnite]

The system is not generating a lot of heat, when idle it's not even really warm to the touch.

What is the temperature difference between the video chip and the video card heatsink?

 

[Shnite]

A GTX780M shows less than 6W at idle.

An excellent result considering that the TDP of your video card is 122W.

 

[unclemiltie]

What is the temperature difference between the video chip and the video card heatsink?

I wasn't aware that with these bios' that the chip temp can be determined and never thought it was accurate.

for example the WX7100 post above it shows GPU chip at 129C and the heat sink at 49. I doubt that is even possible.

 

[Shnite]

Macs Fan Control - управление вентиляторами компьютеров Apple, работает на macOS и Windows (Boot Camp)

Управление вентиляторами компьютеров Apple на macOS и Windows (Boot Camp). Мониторинг и управление вентиляторами компьютеров Apple. Решение проблем перегрева, шума вентиляторов iMac, MacBook (Pro/Air), Mac mini, Mac Pro, замена диска iMac

crystalidea.com

This program will be able to show both the temperature of the chip and the temperature of the heat sink of the video card.

 

[unclemiltie]

It does not (on the Quadra 3100 at least)

my understanding is that the BIOS does not work properly with the SMC to report GPU temp. On my 12,2 with the Quadra, the GPU is reported as a "-" with Macs fan control

But like I said, I don't think you can find a huge difference (long term) between the heatsink temp and the chip temp given that the job of the heat sink is to take heat away.

 

[Shnite]

Why does the S7100X consume 25W with the BIOS from @Ausdauersportler, and 42W with the BIOS from @nikey22?

 

[Shnite]

It does not (on the Quadra 3100 at least)

Can you show a screenshot from the Macs Fan Control program?

 

[unclemiltie]

this is the K3100 system, the WX7100 is at work

 

[Shnite]

this is the K3100 system, the WX7100 is at work

Thanks for the info.
For the S7100X there are at least 5 different BIOSes in this forum thread.
And on some BIOS it shows the GPU temperature, but on some BIOS it doesn’t.
But then the iStat Menus program shows.