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

[idenis42]

I bet he's got the Enable GOP VBIOS installed which you downloaded from his GitHub site.

Thanks

 

[Herver]

Would it be ok to use arctic MX-6 instead of K-5 pro or thermal pads for the the memory units ? (I only have MX-6 at the moment)

Is it possible to re-use the X-cross from a HD6970m on an gtx880m ? (I don't have the 880m X-cross)

 

[ricomack]

You will need to download the Mac system. And to load the Mac, you need to press the X button when you turn it on

excuse my ignorance, but I'm not sure what you mean download the Mac system. Are you implying boot from the Mac disk or something else?

Thx

 

[idenis42]

excuse my ignorance, but I'm not sure what you mean download the Mac system. Are you implying boot from the Mac disk or something else?

Thx

Start the system with the X button

 

[speeedmaster]

Hi guys, I am looking to upgrade my mid 2010 27 iMac 11,3 graphics card and have found someone near me who sells the M5100, M6100 and S7100X. Which one would you go for? Would the 7100 make the fans loud?
I am looking for the most future proof and greater compatibility card.

Thanks!

 

[howardc64]

Hi guys, I am looking to upgrade my mid 2010 27 iMac 11,3 graphics card and have found someone near me who sells the M5100, M6100 and S7100X. Which one would you go for? Would the 7100 make the fans loud?
I am looking for the most future proof and greater compatibility card.

techpowerup.com summary

HD 5670 Mac in the 11,3
M5100 (GCN1)
M6100 (GCN2)
S7100X (GCN3)

Don't know if I trust HD5670's TDP of 15W. 40nm 104 mm^2 GPU surely higher than this?
S7100X is 100W TDP. 28nm 366mm^2. It will put out some heat. More than HD5670
M5100 is easiest install (did one on 11,1 just copper shim)
M6100 need a little heat sink grinding + shim according to links in post #1

Its a big performance range and GCN 1,2,3. Don't know if that makes a differene. I guess choice largely depend on your graphics usage. Every replacement is way faster than HD5670. Even the M4000 which you didn't list (installing M4000 (75% of M5100 @ $12 ebay) -> 11,3 in a few weeks)

My M5100/11,1/OCLP Sonoma Experience

Runs perfect, daily use for a week now with 2 people (iMessage, Mail, Multiple Browsers + few/many tabs, youtube)
Got 4x hangs over this time period (cursor stopped moving, iMac unresponsive, didn't try to check its network response (will do that next time))

1. Once at start of installing OCLP Sonoma
2. Once Safari importing book marks (also had remote video in on another mac to do manual migration)
3. Once Chrome, I think while syncing? which usually populates bookmark bar + extensions (also had remote video in on another mac to do manual migration)
4. Once Brave browser. Logging into macOS account with auto start of prior apps. This included Brave with many tabs open from prior log off. But have done this quite a few other times w/o hang. And no problem on same usage on my A1502 MBP with metal OEM GPU + OCLP Sonoma

#1-3 are first time setup / manual migration so never happens again. #4 is avoidable by not auto start prior apps when logging in (lose convenience of course) So it isn't a high enough occurrence to not use as daily driver in this usage model.

Don't know yet if my hangs are due to bad M5100, HW install, GCN 1 (or 1-3) with OCLP Sonoma. Or these non OEM GPUs with OCLP Sonoma + a lot of specific macOS/GPU activity like many graphic's "threads" with browsers.

 

[speeedmaster]

techpowerup.com summary

HD 5670 Mac in the 11,3
M5100 (GCN1)
M6100 (GCN2)
S7100X (GCN3)

Don't know if I trust HD5670's TDP of 15W. 40nm 104 mm^2 GPU surely higher than this?
S7100X is 100W TDP. 28nm 366mm^2. It will put out some heat. More than HD5670
M5100 is easiest install (did one on 11,1 just copper shim)
M6100 need a little heat sink grinding + shim according to links in post #1

Its a big performance range and GCN 1,2,3. Don't know if that makes a differene. I guess choice largely depend on your graphics usage. Every replacement is way faster than HD5670. Even the M4000 which you didn't list (installing M4000 (75% of M5100 @ $12 ebay) -> 11,3 in a few weeks)

My M5100/11,1/OCLP Sonoma Experience

Runs perfect, daily use for a week now with 2 people (iMessage, Mail, Multiple Browsers + few/many tabs, youtube)
Got 4x hangs over this time period (cursor stopped moving, iMac unresponsive, didn't try to check its network response (will do that next time))

1. Once at start of installing OCLP Sonoma
2. Once Safari importing book marks (also had remote video in on another mac to do manual migration)
3. Once Chrome, I think while syncing? which usually populates bookmark bar + extensions (also had remote video in on another mac to do manual migration)
4. Once Brave browser. Logging into macOS account with auto start of prior apps. This included Brave with many tabs open from prior log off. But have done this quite a few other times w/o hang. And no problem on same usage on my A1502 MBP with metal OEM GPU + OCLP Sonoma

#1-3 are first time setup / manual migration so never happens again. #4 is avoidable by not auto start prior apps when logging in (lose convenience of course) So it isn't a high enough occurrence to not use as daily driver in this usage model.

Don't know yet if my hangs are due to bad M5100, HW install, GCN 1 (or 1-3) with OCLP Sonoma. Or these non OEM GPUs with OCLP Sonoma + a lot of specific macOS/GPU activity like many graphic's "threads" with browsers.

Thank you for your reply!
Actually my IMac has the 5750 card from stock, not 5670.

 

[internetzel]

His card looks exactly the same as mine in the photo and the model is the same. I also do not show the backlight without a hardware mod. OK. Thanks for the reply.

A simple hardware mod will force the backlight to be always on - no brightness control possible in that case.
The hardware mod needs to be removed in order to get brightness control after the first macOS sleep/wake.

 

[howardc64]

Thank you for your reply!
Actually my IMac has the 5750 card from stock, not 5670.

Ah, you got the highest spec 11,3. HD5750

Same core as 5670 but 2x VRAM bandwidth from GDDR3->GDDR5. Anyway, even $12 ebay M4000 is ~2x pixel/texture/fp32/bandwidth haha

So if don't need crazy gfx performance. All will do.

As for future macOS compatibility. Not sure its that easy to forecast. +metal GPU iMacs are Frankensteins (be it a beautiful one!) Apple don't test this config. OCLP probably don't test much on these custom configs. So robustness is kind of just coat tailing off OCLP's main supported system's effort.

 

[idenis42]

A simple hardware mod will force the backlight to be always on - no brightness control possible in that case.
The hardware mod needs to be removed in order to get brightness control after the first macOS sleep/wake.

What do you mean by "hardware mod"?

Is the hardware mod a wire like in the photo?

I don't have a "hardware mod" wire. Look at my photo.

I immediately have a slider when loading. The brightness doesn't change when I move the slider.

 

[internetzel]

I don't have a "hardware mod" wire. Look at my photo.

I also do not show the backlight without a hardware mod.

It seems I didn't understand that correctly.

So I've got no idea for now.

 

[HoreaG]

installing M4000 (75% of M5100 @ $12 ebay)

Where do you see those $12 cards? The only M4000 near that price I see on eBay is a defective one.

 

[howardc64]

Where do you see those $12 cards? The only M4000 near that price I see on eBay is a defective one.

Dell Precision M4700 ( sample ebay listing link as of 2/2/24 ) Card PN = 109-C42251-00A, exact same as @Ausdauersportler post #17529 where he posted the vBIOS. I guess cheap because doesn't say M4000 directly.

Dell spec for this laptop shows its M4000 for the AMD graphics option.

Have a website (in progress) link in signature made for iMac +metal newbies

 

[HoreaG]

Thank

Dell Precision M4700 ( sample ebay listing link as of 2/2/24 ) Card PN = 109-C42251-00A, exact same as @Ausdauersportler post #17529 where he posted the vBIOS. I guess cheap because doesn't say M4000 directly.

Dell spec for this laptop shows its M4000 for the AMD graphics option.

Have a website (in progress) link in signature made for iMac +metal newbies

Thank you. Unfortunately wrong side of the pond. Good links tough.

I will look for a card with the more VRAM the better and let me not constrain with MacOS, I am happy if it runs under Windows.

Just a remark, what I saw on a quick read:
https://sites.google.com/view/imac-metal-gpu/overview?authuser=0

Hardware Install​

Will be installing a blank SSD. This will force iMac to search for a bootable USB stick (the GPU flash tool)

Imacs delivered with a DVD will not let you boot from USB. I once read how to circumvent that (comment out some lines in the firmware?) but can not remember the link to that page.

​

​

 

[howardc64]

Imacs delivered with a DVD will not let you boot from USB. I once read how to circumvent that (comment out some lines in the firmware?) but can not remember the link to that page.

Yes quite interesting. I definitely did the following on the 11,1 (internal optical drive connected to SATA)

• boot to GMRL stick with screen black to flash firmware to M5100 with primary SATA unplugged. Same trick mentioned this this youtube video showing how to use GRML.
• I "think" (not completely sure) booted to OCLP install stick without selecting boot device with a formatted blank SSD on primary SATA.

I do see older posts say to make a self booting CD.

Don't know what the differences are. Maybe some older iMacs didn't auto boot to USB? Maybe older Apple firmware? No idea.

 

[HoreaG]

I do see older posts say to make a self booting CD.

Don't know what the differences are. Maybe some older iMacs didn't auto boot to USB? Maybe older Apple firmware? No idea.

It is an Apple imposed restriction. They blocked the ability to boot from USB if your computer was delivered with a DVD drive. Same model but your copy was without DVD, you can boot from USB. The same model delivered with drive, booting from USB is blocked. This caused a lot of people a pain in the ass. How the problem is to circumvent (get rid of it once for all) was found out by this bloke, but I can not find his homepage. Was the only place I saw that explained and solved.
Shortly Apple announced they retire the DVD drive. The decent thing would be if they release a firmware that removes that restriction from computers delivered with a DVD. Or explain themselves what to do. But they could not care less.

 

[internetzel]

Yes quite interesting. I definitely did the following on the 11,1 (internal optical drive connected to SATA)

• boot to GMRL stick with screen black to flash firmware to M5100 with primary SATA unplugged. Same trick mentioned this this youtube video showing how to use GRML.
• I "think" (not completely sure) booted to OCLP install stick without selecting boot device with a formatted blank SSD on primary SATA.

I do see older posts say to make a self booting CD.

Don't know what the differences are. Maybe some older iMacs didn't auto boot to USB? Maybe older Apple firmware? No idea.

Creating a bootable CD/DVD is helpful to avoid having to remove all drives in case you can't use the Apple boot selector and the boot drive got somehow messed up.
Booting from CD/DVD can be forced by keeping the "C" key pressed after switching on.

 

[howardc64]

Succeeded installing AMD M4000 in 11,3. Basically same steps as my effort on M5100 in 11,1 ( post #21491) BUT couldn't use GRML to flash for some reason so had to use CH341A programmer.

Flash vBIOS failed in GRML

Booting GRML USB stick failed to show on LAN scan with both original GPU and M4000 with slightly different behavior

• Original GPU displays GRML progress on screen showing boots completely. LAN scan showing MAC but no IP so can't ssh.
• pre vBIOS flashed M4000 shows black screen of course. LAN scan shows MAC+IP with ping status showing working intermittently. ssh just hangs.
• After M4000 flashed with vBIOS, booted, post install patched. GRML USB stick work properly and able to ssh.
• Same GRML USB stick worked on a 12,2 and 11,1 so USB stick setup properly.

This condition seems not so rare, here is a solution ( link )

Flash vBIOS with CH341A + macOS ( flashrom )

• Per directions on post #10445 with macOS Monterey. Also needed the macOS drivers for CH341A
• bootrom on M4000 had markings pm25ld010. 25xx series 128KB bootrom 3.3v. Luckily M4000 vBIOS also 128KB so just used the vBIOS file verbatim without any padding steps.
• Cheap CH341A requiring simple soldering to program with 3.3v ( youtube video ) So definitely check CH341A for 5v or 3.3v output and your ROM chip before trying to program. Hardware connection guide here.
• EG2 eDP VBIOS ( link ) rather than post #1 link. VRAM = Samsung rather than Hynix. The single M4000 vBIOS worked fine.

Able to preserve prior OCLP Sonoma installation with user data

Did the following steps

• uninstalled root patch
• installed open core with GCN Graphics Override and AMD GOP Injection checked.
• Installed vBIOS flashed M4000, boot, post install patch

Able to preserve original Sonoma installation with user data.

UI feels a little choppy. Formatted SSD and clean install. macOS setup booted up with yellow screen. Reboot in safe mode, setup (slow) followed by OC install in SSD EFI and post root patch. Seems to run smoother

Hardware Install

• Used a hot air station (~150c) to remove original M4000 X bracket with small bolt threads. Used original GPU X bracket.
• Check distance from top of GPU chip to top of board. Original card = ~2.3mm, M4000 = ~1.8mm. Tried 0.5mm shim and no shim. No temp difference. Decided to run without shim.
• Also important X bracket issues to consider. Read here

OCLP Install

Same process as the M5100 link above.

Proof of Life



10min valley run reached steady state of 50/54C heatsink/GPU with MacFanControl ODD fan set to GPU heat sink temp sensor so the fan came up to 1400rpm to help cool.

 

[macprorookie]

Hi! I recently bought a 2010 iMac11,2 (core i3 3.06, HD4670) that soon stopped showing an image. I took out the GPU, baked it in the oven, and now I get some chess-board square artefacts, then image freezes when entering High Sierra. Most likely was already "fixed" once to last for some days. I checked the first post, but cannot figure out what GPUs are compatible with my iMac. Also, since most GPUs are second-hand, what is the highest probability that I get a long-lasting one? I do not care for GPU performance, it will be used on web/youtube/printing etc.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Hi! I recently bought a 2010 iMac11,2 (core i3 3.06, HD4670) that soon stopped showing an image. I took out the GPU, baked it in the oven, and now I get some chess-board square artefacts, then image freezes when entering High Sierra. Most likely was already "fixed" once to last for some days. I checked the first post, but cannot figure out what GPUs are compatible with my iMac. Also, since most GPUs are second-hand, what is the highest probability that I get a long-lasting one? I do not care for GPU performance, it will be used on web/youtube/printing etc.

You are talking about probability, from what I've been counting in this thread, I would say more than 70% successful cases of upgrading have been reported. The rest were failed cards and returned cards (user errors).
Can't say anything about your specific case. I would get the FirePro M4000 or M5100 because they are cheap. Read post #21568 for a success story.

 

[howardc64]

Hi! I recently bought a 2010 iMac11,2 (core i3 3.06, HD4670) that soon stopped showing an image. I took out the GPU, baked it in the oven, and now I get some chess-board square artefacts, then image freezes when entering High Sierra. Most likely was already "fixed" once to last for some days. I checked the first post, but cannot figure out what GPUs are compatible with my iMac. Also, since most GPUs are second-hand, what is the highest probability that I get a long-lasting one? I do not care for GPU performance, it will be used on web/youtube/printing etc.

You are talking about probability, from what I've been counting in this thread, I would say more than 70% successful cases of upgrading have been reported. The rest were failed cards and returned cards (user errors).
Can't say anything about your specific case. I would get the FirePro M4000 or M5100 because they are cheap. Read post #21568 for a success story.

ditto @Nguyen Duc Hieu

My signature link to my website for newbies doing this so take a look at that.

I'm guessing lower end cards should have better longevity due to less heat during lifetime but its just a guess. Flashing the vBIOS onto the PC card can be easy or challenging. I've encountered both. As noted see post #21568.

 

[howardc64]

Succeeded installing AMD WX4130 in 12,2 running OCLP Sonoma on 2 different iMacs with same OEM AMD 6770M GPU. Basically same steps as my effort on M5100 in 11,1 ( post #21491 )

9/17/24 Update

EG1.2 VBIOS is stable on Monterey, Ventura and Sequoia. Didn't try Sonoma. Likely non EG VBIOS from post #1 has a random hang

8/17/24 Update

Sonoma have random hangs. Different frequency on different minor versions.

Switched to EG1.2 VBIOS (better anyways but not listed in post #1) and so far rock solid on Monterey and Ventura on 2x iMac installs. Will update more after Sonoma.

12,2 Hardware challenges

Need to remove the whole logic board to get GPU card out. 11,x was much easier. This make any GPU physical installation mistakes more cumbersome.

Flash vBIOS using GRML

• Worked smoothly no problem.
• Actually tried to flash with CH341A BIOS clip. Unfortunately the ROM chip ( IS25LQ040 ) is lower profile and the flash clip could not connect properly. Someone did success but am unsure if this flash clip is higher quality ( post #21698 )
• vBIOS file per post #1 is not EG version. EG1.2 version seems more stable ( link )
• NOTE if flash EG2 vBIOS, then will need to know how to patch+mod and flash logic board bootrom so skip EG2 if don't want this additional complexity.

Hardware Install

• Used a hot air station (~150c) to remove original WX4130 X bracket with small bolt threads. Used original GPU X bracket.
• Check distance from top of GPU chip to top of board. 2 iMacs had 2 different results. Maybe need to double check again in the future haha.
  • iMac #1 original card ~= 2.0mm, WX4130 ~= 1.5mm so used a 0.5mm copper shim
  • iMac #2 original card ~= 1.5mm. Didn't use a copper shim
• For HDD temp sensor, jumpered the HDD temp test probe point to nearby ground plane per this website

Building OCLP Installation USB

Follow the diretions in M5100 link above. Really important to have the settings correct when building the USB stick to install smoothly

Set AMD Polaris and AMD GOP Injection when building OC



Proof of Life



Performance and Temperature

GPU runs fairly cool and much higher performance than M5100/M4000

10min valley run reached steady state of 54/60C heatsink/GPU with MacFanControl ODD fan set to GPU heat sink temp sensor so the fan came up only to 1150rpm to help cool. Same results in both shimmed and unshimmed iMac.



OCLP Installation

Review the OCLP Installation and macOS setup summaries from M5100 post above

Encountered a couple of issues during clean install to blank SSD

• Installation stopped in one of the reboot phases ( link ) Seen this before with OEM system OCLP install so unrelated to +metal GPU
• Nearly towards the end got a black screen for like 1 min. Shut down and boot internal SSD installation target to resume progress. The % completion screen phase started and continued to finish

 

[dorninko]

Continuing from above: I did the same upgrade on 4 iMacs 12,2: WX4130, OCLP Sonoma, all but one work fine.
But my last one shows some problems: booting takes very long and there is some sluggish performance when starting apps. I googled a lot and found some comment that starting into safe mode might help. Problem is, when I tried to start into safe mode, booting hangs up (progress bar does not get past 1/2).
Any ideas what I could do?

 

[internetzel]

Continuing from above: I did the same upgrade on 4 iMacs 12,2: WX4130, OCLP Sonoma, all but one work fine.
But my last one shows some problems: booting takes very long and there is some sluggish performance when starting apps. I googled a lot and found some comment that starting into safe mode might help. Problem is, when I tried to start into safe mode, booting hangs up (progress bar does not get past 1/2).
Any ideas what I could do?

You should use a temperature monitoring tool to verify that all temperature sensors do report correct values - except for the GPU temperature sensor, which can not be reported correctly with upgraded graphics cards.
Unfortunately not all needed sensors can be read out by software.
But using the terminal command

sudo powermetrics -s cpu_power -i 100

you can verify whether the CPU frequency does actually change while using the machine - in case it stays at a constant low frequency, there's at least one thermal sensor defective or not connected correctly.

 

[howardc64]

Continuing from above: I did the same upgrade on 4 iMacs 12,2: WX4130, OCLP Sonoma, all but one work fine.
But my last one shows some problems: booting takes very long and there is some sluggish performance when starting apps. I googled a lot and found some comment that starting into safe mode might help. Problem is, when I tried to start into safe mode, booting hangs up (progress bar does not get past 1/2).
Any ideas what I could do?

Sounds like you got the system booted and slow. Probably didn't do post install root patch?