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

[TurboCaca]

well, as far as I know, these Nvidia Kepler cards, all work fine with High Sierra without the need of any patches or any software mods needed.
this is also the same for Mojave.
And as far as I know, third led on the logic board will never light up, since there is no Apple EFI compatible firmware on these Dell/Alienware Nvidia cards.
iMac display should light up when macOS is loaded, you will see it your self..

Cheers. I'm going to skip my Sunday's nap and I'm going to try the Nvidia card in my High Sierra installation first. And if it works, then I'm going to try to install Mojave.

I will come back with news later.

Once again, thanks a lot for the tips.



Edit: I'm back. At first, I tested the Nvidia Card on the High Sierra installation and it worked perfectly (no boot screen, of course).

Later I've put the AMD card and did a new fresh install of Mojave. This time I've booted into Mojave with the AMD card. The last test has been to install back the Nvidia GTX770M and it works like a charm. The only thing that is failing (boot screen apart) is the Bluetooth. I have a Bluetooth keyboard and a trackpad and they don't connect to the iMac. I'm going to do some more tests.

If I just could have the built-in Screen Capture app from Mojave into High Sierra I would keep the iMac in High Sierra.

Once again, thanks a lot for the help.



Second Edit:
Now I've Bluetooth working, Audio, Mojave updated, my beloved Screen Capture app, I've done the SandyBridge kexts needed to fix the sleep issue and the next weekend I'll try to do the brightness backlight PWM mod.

Greets from Barcelona

 

[FlorisVN]

Cheers. I'm going to skip my Sunday's nap and I'm going to try the Nvidia card in my High Sierra installation first. And if it works, then I'm going to try to install Mojave.

I will come back with news later.

Once again, thanks a lot for the tips.



Edit: I'm back. At first, I tested the Nvidia Card on the High Sierra installation and it worked perfectly (no boot screen, of course).

Later I've put the AMD card and did a new fresh install of Mojave. This time I've booted into Mojave with the AMD card. The last test has been to install back the Nvidia GTX770M and it works like a charm. The only thing that is failing (boot screen apart) is the Bluetooth. I have a Bluetooth keyboard and a trackpad and they don't connect to the iMac. I'm going to do some more tests.

If I just could have the built-in Screen Capture app from Mojave into High Sierra I would keep the iMac in High Sierra.

Once again, thanks a lot for the help.



Second Edit:
Now I've Bluetooth working, Audio, Mojave updated, my beloved Screen Capture app, I've done the SandyBridge kexts needed to fix the sleep issue and the next weekend I'll try to do the brightness backlight PWM mod.

Greets from Barcelona

I think i’ve seen other people here ln this topic, complain about bluetooth not working in Mojave with dosdude1 patcher.
I cannot confirm this, since i have not tested this..

Maybe contact dosdude1 about this issue ?..

 

[passatgt]

Bluetooth works fine for me with Mojave dosdude1 patcher, never had any issues with it. iMac 2011 27" + 780m

 

[nieciu]

Hello guys i have an imac 2011 macOS Sierra and an windows 7 on bootcamp. Im intrested in swithing the graficks card for an GTX 765m. i know that i will lose the start up screan . will the Pc boot windows 7 threw bootcamp ?

 

[TurboCaca]

I think i’ve seen other people here ln this topic, complain about bluetooth not working in Mojave with dosdude1 patcher.
I cannot confirm this, since i have not tested this..

Maybe contact dosdude1 about this issue ?..

It's working fine now. I re-paired the devices and it failed again. Then I googled for a fix (not about dosdude patch, a general fix) and deleting a plst file it worked fine.

I'm reading that the Dyinglight module installation supose to lose a USB, Am I right?

 

[FlorisVN]

It's working fine now. I re-paired the devices and it failed again. Then I googled for a fix (not about dosdude patch, a general fix) and deleting a plst file it worked fine.

I'm reading that the Dyinglight module installation supose to lose a USB, Am I right?

ok great it works !
As far as I know, you have to secrifice a internal device.
I think some others here have posted that they have hoocked there Dyinglight up to the sd card reader channel.
They have lost there sd-card reader, but the Dyinglight gots usb and power from that source..
This is one of the ways I think to hook up the Dyinglight to the iMac.
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Hello guys i have an imac 2011 macOS Sierra and an windows 7 on bootcamp. Im intrested in swithing the graficks card for an GTX 765m. i know that i will lose the start up screan . will the Pc boot windows 7 threw bootcamp ?

I never got Bootcamp working with internal iMac display (only external) with GTX765m.
Some others have here, but so far not clear to me how they did it.

 

[nieciu]

ok dziękuję za odpowiedź.

 

[TurboCaca]

ok dziękuję za odpowiedź.

witaj

 

[bmillz]

So I’ve been using the Alienware 770m for a few months on Mojave in my 2009 iMac 27” and I’m happy to report that I have it working in Windows as well now. I initially thought that the backlight wasn’t going to work because after the drivers installed I lost backlight. However, I found that putting the iMac in sleep and then waking it up from sleep restored the backlight. So, every time I reboot the system I have to put it in sleep and wake it up and then the backlight works fine. I know other people on this forum had trouble getting their backlight to work on Windows and I’m curious if anybody else tried this simple solution to see if they’re backlight would come on. Also my Windows install is the legacy/bios version NOT UEFI.

 

[Xiaox323]

Thats really good News.
Can u say, how u install windows?

Thx in forward!

So I’ve been using the Alienware 770m for a few months on Mojave in my 2009 iMac 27” and I’m happy to report that I have it working in Windows as well now. I initially thought that the backlight wasn’t going to work because after the drivers installed I lost backlight. However, I found that putting the iMac in sleep and then waking it up from sleep restored the backlight. So, every time I reboot the system I have to put it in sleep and wake it up and then the backlight works fine. I know other people on this forum had trouble getting their backlight to work on Windows and I’m curious if anybody else tried this simple solution to see if they’re backlight would come on. Also my Windows install is the legacy/bios version NOT UEFI.

 

[bmillz]

Thats really good News.
Can u say, how u install windows?

Thx in forward!

I used the Windows 10 iso (build 1607) because the newer ones have problems with bootcamp(plus they don’t fit on a dvd which was what I used). So I booted into it and wiped my SSD because I didn’t want MacOS on it anymore, and installed Windows. After it booted, I went into the Power settings and changed the power button setting from “shutdown” to “sleep” that way I can use the button to sleep and wake the computer. I installed the bootcamp package relevant for my system(4.x). And rebooted. It will show the Windows logo on startup, but the screen goes black at the lock screen. I just push the power button to sleep, wait 5 seconds and press it again and voila.

 

[Toni96pp]

Cheers. I'm going to skip my Sunday's nap and I'm going to try the Nvidia card in my High Sierra installation first. And if it works, then I'm going to try to install Mojave.

I will come back with news later.

Once again, thanks a lot for the tips.



Edit: I'm back. At first, I tested the Nvidia Card on the High Sierra installation and it worked perfectly (no boot screen, of course).

Later I've put the AMD card and did a new fresh install of Mojave. This time I've booted into Mojave with the AMD card. The last test has been to install back the Nvidia GTX770M and it works like a charm. The only thing that is failing (boot screen apart) is the Bluetooth. I have a Bluetooth keyboard and a trackpad and they don't connect to the iMac. I'm going to do some more tests.

If I just could have the built-in Screen Capture app from Mojave into High Sierra I would keep the iMac in High Sierra.

Once again, thanks a lot for the help.



Second Edit:
Now I've Bluetooth working, Audio, Mojave updated, my beloved Screen Capture app, I've done the SandyBridge kexts needed to fix the sleep issue and the next weekend I'll try to do the brightness backlight PWM mod.

Greets from Barcelona

Saludos desde Madrid,

How do you fix the bt problem and the sleep issue?

 

[FlorisVN]

I used the Windows 10 iso (build 1607) because the newer ones have problems with bootcamp(plus they don’t fit on a dvd which was what I used). So I booted into it and wiped my SSD because I didn’t want MacOS on it anymore, and installed Windows. After it booted, I went into the Power settings and changed the power button setting from “shutdown” to “sleep” that way I can use the button to sleep and wake the computer. I installed the bootcamp package relevant for my system(4.x). And rebooted. It will show the Windows logo on startup, but the screen goes black at the lock screen. I just push the power button to sleep, wait 5 seconds and press it again and voila.

Let’s hope this also works for other dell/alienware cards, like for example gtx765m and gtx780m

 

[max86]

Let’s hope this also works for other dell/alienware cards, like for example gtx765m and gtx780m

Ill try it i have gtx 765 alienware dell card.Ill let you all know.

 

[TurboCaca]

Saludos desde Madrid,

How do you fix the bt problem and the sleep issue?

Hola Toni. Te respondo en Inglés por respeto al foro.
Si quieres, podemos comentar el tema por MP.

I tried deleting the .plist files related to bluetooth:

Delete .plist files
.plist (Property List) files are used by Macs to store software user preferences for things like the keyboard, mouse, and trackpad. It’s rare, but not unheard of, for these files to become corrupted and affect Bluetooth connectivity. Deleting the .plist files is a straightforward process.

1. Close any app that is trying to connect with Bluetooth.
2. Press Command+Shift+G in the Finder.
3. Enter ~/Library/Preferences/ and click Go.
4. Locate the com.apple.Bluetooth.plist file and delete it.
5. Reboot your MacBook.

The Preferences folder might contain other files with the same extension. It’s safe to delete these too but start with the com.apple.Bluetooth.plist file first.
​

For the sleep issue you have a hint in the op of this thread.

Q: sleep is broken in Mojave, how do i fix this?

A: this is because of the SandyBridge kexts missing in Mojave. Although we aren't using the iGPU, these kexts are still needed for proper sleep functionality. A zip file is attached with the proper kexts to restore sleep in Mojave. Inside the unzipped folder contains an APP, Kext Utility and the necessary SandyBridge kexts needed to be installed. Right click to open kext utility, then immediately quit. Select all the files inside the folder and drag them on top of kext utility and allow them to install.
​

You have to download this file:
https://forums.macrumors.com/attachments/intelsandybridgegraphics-zip.837256/

Greets from Barcelona

 

[ich558]

Hopefully dosdude can also patch the new macOS for unsupported devices

 

[FlorisVN]

Hopefully dosdude can also patch the new macOS for unsupported devices

Maybe but will be more difficult each year..

 

[Roman78]

Hello there...

i have two 2011 iMacs here with defective GPUs. After a failing Reflow i wanted to test some alternative graphics card. For the first test i ordered a cheap one, Nvidia GT230M. On the MacPro i had this card running, well the PCIe version of it. Now in the iMac it just won't turn on. I see the Fans spin up for a millisecond and that's it. Without the card the mac starts. Is there something about the card or why is the iMac not turning on?

 

[FlorisVN]

Hello there...

i have two 2011 iMacs here with defective GPUs. After a failing Reflow i wanted to test some alternative graphics card. For the first test i ordered a cheap one, Nvidia GT230M. On the MacPro i had this card running, well the PCIe version of it. Now in the iMac it just won't turn on. I see the Fans spin up for a millisecond and that's it. Without the card the mac starts. Is there something about the card or why is the iMac not turning on?

seems like that card model is incompatible with your iMac.
I would advise you to stick with known working cards, please read opening post of this topic for more info.
Stick for example with Dell/Alienware Nvidia kepler cards, like GTX765/770/780m.

 

[Roman78]

seems like that card model is incompatible with your iMac.
I would advise you to stick with known working cards, please read opening post of this topic for more info.
Stick for example with Dell/Alienware Nvidia kepler cards, like GTX765/770/780m.

Are those cards Plug and play, or do i need Nvidia Webdrivers? I wanted a card with a low power consumption. The 765/770/780 are all in the higher segment. Are there other cards in the low-mid segment compatible with the iMac? Like the GT610-GTX660? These are all Kepler? Or maybe GT705-GT750?

But why is the iMac not booting?

 

[TurboCaca]

Are those cards Plug and play, or do i need Nvidia Webdrivers? I wanted a card with a low power consumption. The 765/770/780 are all in the higher segment. Are there other cards in the low-mid segment compatible with the iMac? Like the GT610-GTX660? These are all Kepler? Or maybe GT705-GT750?

But why is the iMac not booting?

I installed a GTX770M just plugging it. There were some users discussing the possibility of installing an Nvidia Quadro K2000M (it seems to be one of the cheapest ones that work).

Search in this thread to see if they got success with it

 

[Roman78]

Hmmmm The Quadro K2000M is almost the same in price as the 765M.

Do i need to check for something special when buying a 765M? I read on... hmmmm page 34 or so... that someone had a 765 and with that card the iMac did the same as mine, not starting at all.

Can someone confirm that the Dell 9R3F5 GTX 765M 2GB is working? This one: https://www.7digits.nl/product/gtx-765m-2gb-graphics-card-9r3f5/

 

[passatgt]

The k2000m was a lot cheaper, but i guess the demand is high(because of this thread probably) and the price went up... I bought one last year on aliexpress for $40...

The one you linked should work. If not, you need to change the bios on it, but the card itself is fine. To change the bios, you can follow this tutorial and download firmwares from Techpowerup that are known to work: https://tomvanveen.eu/flashing-bios-chip-raspberry-pi/
[doublepost=1559665752][/doublepost]

Hmmmm The Quadro K2000M is almost the same in price as the 765M.

Do i need to check for something special when buying a 765M? I read on... hmmmm page 34 or so... that someone had a 765 and with that card the iMac did the same as mine, not starting at all.

Can someone confirm that the Dell 9R3F5 GTX 765M 2GB is working? This one: https://www.7digits.nl/product/gtx-765m-2gb-graphics-card-9r3f5/

.

 

[Roman78]

The one you linked should work. If not, you need to change the bios on it, but the card itself is fine. To change the bios, you can follow this tutorial and download firmwares from Techpowerup that are known to work: https://tomvanveen.eu/flashing-bios-chip-raspberry-pi/

Flashing the Bios with a raspberry...? Holy cow... Desolder the Chip, flash and solder back.... Is there a DIY for the card itself?

/edit... just ordered two of those cards....

 

[Roman78]

They only have one of those GTX 765M left, so i'm still on the hunt for a other card. I just had a look at the Quadro' and found a K1000M for a descent price. Can someone tel me this card works? It has a GK107GL chip. Where does GL stand for? Also found an K500M, containing an GK107, same as the K2000M. Would this one work?

I had a look at the wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Quadro The K500M has a MXM-A (3.0) interface and the K2000M a PCI-E 3.0x16 Why is that?

And did someone tried the XServe GPU P815 in the iMac? This one: https://www.ebay.de/itm/Apple-631-0...532071&hash=item2619cd4361:g:7j4AAOSwC71crJ96 This is an GT120