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

[howardc64]

Hi you all
yesterday i think i killed my install during Sonoma 14.7 update.
I have a XM4130 Graphics Card added to my old iMac 12,1 .
It is a pre-flashed one I ordered through ebay US.

All worked fine using Sonoma 14.6.1 until I tried updating to 14.7

I was not able to login anymore because Systems hangs at login screen.

Then I thought I do I fresh Install and erased die complete SSD .
Starting System and using option Key does not Work. the USB "OCLP EFI Boot picker" can not be accessed.
There is only a normal boot picker to Install from Usb , but after installation is completed I hav e blank Black Screen an can not login.
I guess the complete OCLP Stuff is being ignored.

Is there any Chance to get this System up and running again?

I would really appreciate any help or tipps .

Thanks in advance.

Not sure how you are boot picking. Did this black screen writeup for you and probably many others in the future

iMac+Metal GPU - Black Screen

Ok, you've got a black screen. So what to do? There are many scenarios and I don't know all of them. But here is a list to review

sites.google.com

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Hi you all
yesterday i think i killed my install during Sonoma 14.7 update.
I have a XM4130 Graphics Card added to my old iMac 12,1 .
It is a pre-flashed one I ordered through ebay US.

All worked fine using Sonoma 14.6.1 until I tried updating to 14.7

I was not able to login anymore because Systems hangs at login screen.

Then I thought I do I fresh Install and erased die complete SSD .
Starting System and using option Key does not Work. the USB "OCLP EFI Boot picker" can not be accessed.
There is only a normal boot picker to Install from Usb , but after installation is completed I hav e blank Black Screen an can not login.
I guess the complete OCLP Stuff is being ignored.

Is there any Chance to get this System up and running again?

I would really appreciate any help or tipps .

Thanks in advance.

Try create the OCLP CD and boot from that CD?
(Pressing C at boot will direct the iMac to boot from optical drive)

 

[eoghan!]

Hi everyone
Big shout out to everyone on here for helping us keep our old macs up to date.

Earlier this year I picked up a 12,1 21.5in imac 2011. I transferred all my data from my 2012 mac mini which was running Big Sur using OCLP. Everything was fine and dandy and with the help of this site I upgraded the cpu to an i7 took a Samsung 860 EVO SSD from my old 2009 mac mini and put in an upgrade wifi kit. However the problems started when I changed the graphics card to a WX4150 I got off eBay. No matter what I tried, I could not get the card to be recognised. I changed OCLP settings with SSD in an external case did a clean installation of Ventura but to no avail. The card was still not recognised.

Yesterday I received cheap 1TB drives I got off aliexpress these were supposed to Samsung 870 Evo but were knockoffs i.e. not real ones. Just to test them out I put one in an external case and did a clean installation of Monterey. To my supprise drive is working and graphics card is recognised,
I was wondering if anyone else is having problems with the 860 drives?.
I'm going to use migration assistant to move my data from the old SSD to the new one later on, hopefully card will still be recognised afterwards.

 

[howardc64]

Earlier this year I picked up a 12,1 21.5in imac 2011. I transferred all my data from my 2012 mac mini which was running Big Sur using OCLP. Everything was fine and dandy and with the help of this site I upgraded the cpu to an i7 took a Samsung 860 EVO SSD from my old 2009 mac mini and put in an upgrade wifi kit. However the problems started when I changed the graphics card to a WX4150 I got off eBay. No matter what I tried, I could not get the card to be recognised. I changed OCLP settings with SSD in an external case did a clean installation of Ventura but to no avail. The card was still not recognised.

Yesterday I received cheap 1TB drives I got off aliexpress these were supposed to Samsung 870 Evo but were knockoffs i.e. not real ones. Just to test them out I put one in an external case and did a clean installation of Monterey. To my supprise drive is working and graphics card is recognised,
I was wondering if anyone else is having problems with the 860 drives?.

I have installed 2x 250GB 860 EVO on 12,1 with nVidia k610m without problem. And have 860 EVO in several others. More info here

Macs Stayin Alive - Upgrade Parts

SSD This will be likely be the most expensive part of the upgrade. Largely due to cyclic fluctuating flash memory prices. Do note more poor flash memory makers from China are entering the market and can fail rapidly just outside the return window. Probably the major high quality brands are the msot

sites.google.com

Maybe got one that failed? PCs seems more compatible for nearly all non enterprise SSDs.

 

[prz__ek]

Hello, can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong?
I had very good price for wx7100 (~ 100$) it is hardware v1.1. I have iMac 12,2 27 with 3 pipe heat sink.
Using CH341a I put EG vBios into ROM (WX7100-EnableGop.bin - verified, looks that should work).
After boot my Sonoma (with classic Open Core Patcher installed and patched), system boot correctly, display worked, but in some simple settings. I checked and there was information, that no kext is loaded for my GPU, but as I said, display worked in system.
I try to install oclp and install drivers. There was info, that drivers for my computer will be installed (and there was info about AMD Polaris drivers) but after reboot situation was same - no kext loaded. I was not sure which drivers I should chose, so I changed it to AMD GCN (my card is in section GCN v4 on first page), and use checkbox GOP injection. After reboot I loose my screen after system boot (EFI, boot menu from oc and progres bar of system loading still works, but black screen when my desktop should be shown).

So, I made backup to second partition (not APFS container) and on first partition, I reinstalled system from USB (chosed iMac12,2, and AMD Polaris drivers during patching instalation USB). I installed system, two reboots during reinstall and.... Still black screen.

I miss something? What I'm doing wrong?

 

[HuppDiDupp]

Not sure how you are boot picking. Did this black screen writeup for you and probably many others in the future

iMac+Metal GPU - Black Screen

Ok, you've got a black screen. So what to do? There are many scenarios and I don't know all of them. But here is a list to review

sites.google.com

Hi @howardc64 , thanks for your reply.
i don't think this matches my problem.
I tried installing the old , original AMD GPU . I was then able to reinstall Sonoma, update to 14.7 and patch with OCLP 2.0.2 . At this step the iMac 12,1 is working but without metal support.

Then I replaced die GPU to the preflashed XM4130 , that previously worked (with Sonoma 14.6 and OCLP 1.5.0)
When I then reboot the System is starting but System Information shows only GPU with 7mb graphics memory.
OCLP detects the new card as AMD Polaris but I can't just override the installed patches.
Then I used "revert Patches" in OLCP and after reboot the system boots but I guess graphics is not loaded and screen stays blank / black.

I have now clue how to get this working again.
Or should I maybe completely revert GPU and to Sonoma 14.6 with OCLP 1.5.0 and then replace the GPU again.
Could this issue maybe be a combination of Sonoma 14.7 and OCLP 2.0.2 ??

 

[HuppDiDupp]

Try create the OCLP CD and boot from that CD?
(Pressing C at boot will direct the iMac to boot from optical drive)

Hi @Nguyen Duc Hieu , thanks for replying.
never did this before . Is there a guide how to create OCLP CD ?

 

[RaikoBR]

Hey guys, I installed a K3100M on my 27" 2011 iMac. During testing, the card booted up perfectly without any mods. After that, I tested a 780M MXM that I had around, but it didn’t boot. When I reinstalled the K3100M, it also wouldn’t boot.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far: removing the BIOS battery and waiting for capacitor discharge for 24 hours, resetting the PRAM, powering on with only the MXM and fans connected. I even tested the GPU in another 2011 iMac, where I’m receiving the chime, but the GPU still won’t boot. I also have an M1000M on hand, and testing it in both systems shows 2 LEDs.

Attempting to boot with GMRL to flash the VBIOS is also causing trouble, as it isn’t recognizing my network card.

 

[howardc64]

Hi @Nguyen Duc Hieu , thanks for replying.
never did this before . Is there a guide how to create OCLP CD ?

iMac+Metal GPU - vBIOS

vBIOS = Video BIOS. Basically how GPU boots. Since used GPU are sourced from PCs, need to be flashed to match how Mac boot. It is a ROM image and need to be flashed into GPU cards onboard EEPROM (reprogrammable ROM store) Some cards don't have this EEPROM (GPU maker cut cost and put file on PC to

sites.google.com

Hi @howardc64 , thanks for your reply.
i don't think this matches my problem.
I tried installing the old , original AMD GPU . I was then able to reinstall Sonoma, update to 14.7 and patch with OCLP 2.0.2 . At this step the iMac 12,1 is working but without metal support.

Then I replaced die GPU to the preflashed XM4130 , that previously worked (with Sonoma 14.6 and OCLP 1.5.0)
When I then reboot the System is starting but System Information shows only GPU with 7mb graphics memory.
OCLP detects the new card as AMD Polaris but I can't just override the installed patches.
Then I used "revert Patches" in OLCP and after reboot the system boots but I guess graphics is not loaded and screen stays blank / black.

I have now clue how to get this working again.
Or should I maybe completely revert GPU and to Sonoma 14.6 with OCLP 1.5.0 and then replace the GPU again.
Could this issue maybe be a combination of Sonoma 14.7 and OCLP 2.0.2 ??

You may have received an EG2 flashed VBIOS. I previously made a guide for wx4130 and made an error noting EG2 rather than EG1.2. EG2 require logic board bootrom patch+mod+flash. I think this unfortunately caused the problems encountered by @KingCornWallis if you read his recently post.

Not sure where you got your preflashed wx4130. If from aliexpress, I've had one where they flashed the wrong VBIOS (or not at all) I realized they probably don't test after flash. For the the cheaper priced cards from less experienced shops, they also don't have much sales experience yet to know of process is robust. If they blindly followed my prior mistyped guide with EG2, then could be getting the behavior you are seeing. Here are the details on EG/EG2

iMac+Metal GPU - vBIOS

vBIOS = Video BIOS. Basically how GPU boots. Since used GPU are sourced from PCs, need to be flashed to match how Mac boot. It is a ROM image and need to be flashed into GPU cards onboard EEPROM (reprogrammable ROM store) Some cards don't have this EEPROM (GPU maker cut cost and put file on PC to

sites.google.com

To confirm which VBIOS you have, maybe there are shortcuts but I don't know what they are (Maybe there is some signature in System Report ->Graphics?). Only way I know unfortunately requires running GRML and read back the VBIOS image and compare with the EG1.2 EG2 VBIOS files online to see which one you have. Read here for more info

iMac+Metal GPU - flash GPU GRML/CH341A

Overview There are 2 methods to flash the GPU. For 10,x and 11,x, GRML is probably the easiest path as GPU is easy to remove and install. 12,x GPU is difficult to remove/install so CH341A is desirable IF flashrom is not the low profile version. GRML For end users, this is the easiest path to flash

sites.google.com

 

[howardc64]

Hey guys, I installed a K3100M on my 27" 2011 iMac. During testing, the card booted up perfectly without any mods. After that, I tested a 780M MXM that I had around, but it didn’t boot. When I reinstalled the K3100M, it also wouldn’t boot.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far: removing the BIOS battery and waiting for capacitor discharge for 24 hours, resetting the PRAM, powering on with only the MXM and fans connected. I even tested the GPU in another 2011 iMac, where I’m receiving the chime, but the GPU still won’t boot. I also have an M1000M on hand, and testing it in both systems shows 2 LEDs.

You didn't note what is on the internal drive EFI and macOS partition. Changing cards without matching EFI could result in no boot.

First K3100 install, what macOS? OCLP or stock? OC in EFI or no?
780MXM, same questions
2nd K3100 install, same questions

Attempting to boot with GMRL to flash the VBIOS is also causing trouble, as it isn’t recognizing my network card.

iMac+Metal GPU - flash GPU GRML/CH341A

Overview There are 2 methods to flash the GPU. For 10,x and 11,x, GRML is probably the easiest path as GPU is easy to remove and install. 12,x GPU is difficult to remove/install so CH341A is desirable IF flashrom is not the low profile version. GRML For end users, this is the easiest path to flash

sites.google.com

Read red section for workaround. But your problem maybe due to incorrect EFI and macOS rather than vBIOS so carefully check that first.

Can also make a rescue CD to not depend on internal drive EFI

iMac+Metal GPU - vBIOS

vBIOS = Video BIOS. Basically how GPU boots. Since used GPU are sourced from PCs, need to be flashed to match how Mac boot. It is a ROM image and need to be flashed into GPU cards onboard EEPROM (reprogrammable ROM store) Some cards don't have this EEPROM (GPU maker cut cost and put file on PC to

sites.google.com

 

[RaikoBR]

You didn't note what is on the internal drive EFI and macOS partition. Changing cards without matching EFI could result in no boot.

First K3100 install, what macOS? OCLP or stock? OC in EFI or no?
780MXM, same questions
2nd K3100 install, same questions

iMac+Metal GPU - flash GPU GRML/CH341A

Overview There are 2 methods to flash the GPU. For 10,x and 11,x, GRML is probably the easiest path as GPU is easy to remove and install. 12,x GPU is difficult to remove/install so CH341A is desirable IF flashrom is not the low profile version. GRML For end users, this is the easiest path to flash

sites.google.com

Read red section for workaround. But your problem maybe due to incorrect EFI and macOS rather than vBIOS so carefully check that first.

Can also make a rescue CD to not depend on internal drive EFI

iMac+Metal GPU - vBIOS

vBIOS = Video BIOS. Basically how GPU boots. Since used GPU are sourced from PCs, need to be flashed to match how Mac boot. It is a ROM image and need to be flashed into GPU cards onboard EEPROM (reprogrammable ROM store) Some cards don't have this EEPROM (GPU maker cut cost and put file on PC to

sites.google.com

Alright, it was the stock macOS. I tried the solution above, and I got SSH working, but now I'm seeing:

ERROR: No NVIDIA display adapters found.

So, either my GPU is dead or improperly seated. I’ll clean it and try again. Thanks

 

[howardc64]

Alright, it was the stock macOS. I tried the solution above, and I got SSH working, but now I'm seeing:

ERROR: No NVIDIA display adapters found.

So, either my GPU is dead or improperly seated. I’ll clean it and try again. Thanks

ah ok. since you are playing with a few GPUs on a 12,2 (the most difficult one) and perhaps with multiple shim thickness, check heatsink clearance, people have had shorts.

 

[dorninko]

Hi everyone
Big shout out to everyone on here for helping us keep our old macs up to date.

Earlier this year I picked up a 12,1 21.5in imac 2011. I transferred all my data from my 2012 mac mini which was running Big Sur using OCLP. Everything was fine and dandy and with the help of this site I upgraded the cpu to an i7 took a Samsung 860 EVO SSD from my old 2009 mac mini and put in an upgrade wifi kit. However the problems started when I changed the graphics card to a WX4150 I got off eBay. No matter what I tried, I could not get the card to be recognised. I changed OCLP settings with SSD in an external case did a clean installation of Ventura but to no avail. The card was still not recognised.

Yesterday I received cheap 1TB drives I got off aliexpress these were supposed to Samsung 870 Evo but were knockoffs i.e. not real ones. Just to test them out I put one in an external case and did a clean installation of Monterey. To my supprise drive is working and graphics card is recognised,
I was wondering if anyone else is having problems with the 860 drives?.
I'm going to use migration assistant to move my data from the old SSD to the new one later on, hopefully card will still be recognised afterwards.

Just a Moment: I had serious problems with migration assistant, it took forever and crashed my system (I tried that on several iMacs). Much better way is to copy the user directory to the new ssd and then create a new user with exactly the same name as on the old installation. You can also copy most of the apps directly from the old to the new disk, only a few apps need full installation.

 

[howardc64]

I had serious problems with migration assistant

I also tried a couple of times and just errored out. But Mr. Macintosh seems to have a solution. See bottom of OLCP Cons section.

Macs Stayin Alive - OCLP

What is OCLP (OpenCore Legacy Patcher) Basically a tool to install latest macOS to obsoleted (Legacy) Macs. macOS is actually open sourced so a community of quite capable hackers (mostly in EU) rescuing drivers and software components from obsolete Macs into later macOS. They do an amazing job

sites.google.com

 

[Lucero79]

About to pull the trigger on a WX 4150 (109-C98581-00_02 V343 VER: 1.1) for my 2011 iMAC 21.5. E2428 (A1311)

I've swapped out everything on this iMAC as it came to me broken (GFX display card failure). I have upped to 32GB and an SSD and swapped out to the i7 2600S. Given this is a new SSD with no MacOS on it, what are the best steps for making the WX 4150 work and what MacOS should I install?

 

[howardc64]

About to pull the trigger on a WX 4150 (109-C98581-00_02 V343 VER: 1.1) for my 2011 iMAC 21.5. E2428 (A1311)

I've swapped out everything on this iMAC as it came to me broken (GFX display card failure). I have upped to 32GB and an SSD and swapped out to the i7 2600S. Given this is a new SSD with no MacOS on it, what are the best steps for making the WX 4150 work and what MacOS should I install?

Failed iMacs have extra challenge. Ideally like to upgrade to macOS High Sierra first so logic board gets the firmware update to handle APFS. If HS has been previously installed, good to go.

Haven't done a wx4150 but have done wx4130 (no card mods) and wx3200 (simple card mods). See signature link for install guides.

 

[dappy18]

** NVIDIA Quadro K610M Mac edition ROM **​

View attachment 1726139


K610M:
The chip I used to develop the ROM is: N15M-Q2-B-A1
MXM-A (3.0) bus interface, low powered card at TDP 30W.
It is a drop-in fit for the 21.5" iMac and 27” iMac heatsinks.
It is based on the GK208 GPU Kepler 2.0 architecture.
Metal supported.


I put this together only because there are now a few members on here that have one and it is relatively cheap to purchase for the moment.
I have not had a chance to test it fully, but I can confirm brightness control will work with Opencore implementation on High Sierra 10.13.6. It is based on Nick[D]vb's ROMs, credits to him.
Bootpicker menu is also available ofcourse.

I've noticed that brightness is not set correctly when using the Opencore platform:

<key>DeviceProperties</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Add</key>
        <dict>
            <key>PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)</key>
            <dict>
                <key>@0,backlight-control</key>
                <data>AQAAAA==</data>
                <key>@0,built-in</key>
                <data>AQAAAA==</data>
            </dict>
            <key>PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x3,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)</key>
            <dict>
                <key>@0,backlight-control</key>
                <data>AQAAAA==</data>
                <key>@0,built-in</key>
                <data>AQAAAA==</data>
            </dict>
        </dict>
        <key>Delete</key>
        <dict/>
    </dict>

The first <key> PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0) is made up of the Root PCI Bridge, the 1st PCI Device node and 2nd PCI Device node.

The second <key> entry is similarly encoded for the 2009/2010 machines.

Correlating this with the IO reg entry:
in 2011 models:
IOACPIPlane:/_SB/PCI0@0/POP2@10000/GFX0@0
in 2009/2010 models:
IOACPIPlane:/_SB/PCI0@0/POP2@30000/GFX0@0

I suggest the following changes:
delete the entire second key below for those of you with a 2011 machine:

<key>PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x3,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)</key>
            <dict>
                <key>@0,backlight-control</key>
                <data>AQAAAA==</data>
                <key>@0,built-in</key>
                <data>AQAAAA==</data>
            </dict>

This cleared up the brightness issue for me.

Insanely Great!
-Steve Jobs



******
UPDATE
******
02/06/2021
-minor rom changes, improved speed, TDP: 1097Mhz, boost: 1202Mhz, Mem:1600Mhz
-working on Catalina 10.15.7 2011 iMac 21.5"
-working on Catalina 10.15.7 2009 iMac 27"

07/15/2020
- working on Catalina 10.15.3 2011 iMac 21.5"
- no internet recovery
- working on Catalina 10.15.X 2009 iMac 27" (Ausdauersportler)

Hello guys,

Thanks a lot for all your work here, it's so interesting read you all ! I'm a newbies and I have a question :

I found that card on AliExpress, Quadro K610M, here is the link (no affiliation link):

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004823226535.html

I would like to know if I can just put in my iMac as they pretend it is for iMac, or did I have to flash something ?

My original buggy ATI 6970M stop working again after three times in the oven, and I would like to replace it but not spend much money on it ! The iMac 12.1 I have is a great machine, and I hope I can upgrade to Sequioa after I change the card...

Thank you again,

dap

 

[howardc64]

Hello guys,

Thanks a lot for all your work here, it's so interesting read you all ! I'm a newbies and I have a question :

I found that card on AliExpress, Quadro K610M, here is the link (no affiliation link):

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004823226535.html

I would like to know if I can just put in my iMac as they pretend it is for iMac, or did I have to flash something ?

seems like listing is for iMac pre-flashed GPUs but probably want to confirm with seller.

My original buggy ATI 6970M stop working again after three times in the oven, and I would like to replace it but not spend much money on it !

iMac+Metal GPU - Misc

Already Failed iMacs These can be challenging because its desirable to have logic board bootrom already updated via High Sierra to properly decode APFS file systems of later macOS. On a none working iMac, this maybe unknown. Desirable to get it working first and upgrade to HS before proceeding

sites.google.com

The iMac 12.1 I have is a great machine, and I hope I can upgrade to Sequioa after I change the card...

iMac+Metal GPU - 12,x

Main Info Source All the info is gleamed from the big macrumor's thread post #1. Be sure to consult the following sections. No way to link to these sections so perhaps open 2 browser windows to read side by side this site and these sections Spoiler: 2 Working AMD Graphics Cards Spoiler: AMD GCN v4

sites.google.com

 

[dappy18]

seems like listing is for iMac pre-flashed GPUs but probably want to confirm with seller.

iMac+Metal GPU - Misc

Already Failed iMacs These can be challenging because its desirable to have logic board bootrom already updated via High Sierra to properly decode APFS file systems of later macOS. On a none working iMac, this maybe unknown. Desirable to get it working first and upgrade to HS before proceeding

sites.google.com

iMac+Metal GPU - 12,x

Main Info Source All the info is gleamed from the big macrumor's thread post #1. Be sure to consult the following sections. No way to link to these sections so perhaps open 2 browser windows to read side by side this site and these sections Spoiler: 2 Working AMD Graphics Cards Spoiler: AMD GCN v4

sites.google.com

Thank you a lot Howardc64 for you very clear and useful reply.

I finally found a seller on AliExpress with a lot of positive review who sell working out of the box Nvidia card... I will give a try and tell you, if some people interested here is the link with some interesting reviews :

Quadro K610M 1GB K1000M K1100M K2000M K2100M 2GB Video Card K610 K1000 K1100 K2000 K2100 For iMac A1311 A1312 2009 2010 2011 - AliExpress 7

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

 

[eoghan!]

Just a Moment: I had serious problems with migration assistant, it took forever and crashed my system (I tried that on several iMacs). Much better way is to copy the user directory to the new ssd and then create a new user with exactly the same name as on the old installation. You can also copy most of the apps directly from the old to the new disk, only a few apps need full installation.

You're right! I can't seem to get Migration assistant to work at all. Tried to revert patches but it never seems to happen
Root patches always seem to be there. Is there a way to do it manually?. Followed Mr Macintosh video as well. Pulling my hair out in frustration. I'm going bald rapid

 

[Lucero79]

Failed iMacs have extra challenge. Ideally like to upgrade to macOS High Sierra first so logic board gets the firmware update to handle APFS. If HS has been previously installed, good to go.

Haven't done a wx4150 but have done wx4130 (no card mods) and wx3200 (simple card mods). See signature link for install guides.

Thanks for your reply. I checked the link and the comparison table on imac metal site:

iMac+Metal GPU - GPU Selection

This part can be quite challenging with so many possibilities, working and non working versions of the same card. And success (including partial and during earlier development) posts scattered all over. Only few Simpler Card Choices Some risk to buy pre-flashed cards. Read link iMac 11,x Best

sites.google.com

But I am confused. This seems to contradict other posts. It says 12,1 iMac (which I have) only Dell / HP Blue cards and requires additional hardware steps (soldering). I was really hoping for a hardware P'n'P solution. I don't mind the software part....

 

[howardc64]

Thanks for your reply. I checked the link and the comparison table on imac metal site:

iMac+Metal GPU - GPU Selection

This part can be quite challenging with so many possibilities, working and non working versions of the same card. And success (including partial and during earlier development) posts scattered all over. Only few Simpler Card Choices Some risk to buy pre-flashed cards. Read link iMac 11,x Best

sites.google.com

But I am confused. This seems to contradict other posts. It says 12,1 iMac (which I have) only Dell / HP Blue cards and requires additional hardware steps (soldering). I was really hoping for a hardware P'n'P solution. I don't mind the software part....

The table I included have brief short hand summaries. Maybe confusing.

I'm unsure about wx4150. Never did one. Better do more research. Not sure anyone summarized latest status

• Post #1 link dated 8/18/21 doesn't say.
• Post #14529 dated 5/13/21 shows mod
• Post #16354 dated 10/4/21 shows mod

Looks like wx4150 ( or some version of it ) need HW mods.

Read the 12,x tab for no HW mod ( Dell wx4130 v1.1, Kepler ) and slight HW mod ( wx3200 ) cards.

iMac+Metal GPU - 12,x

Main Info Source All the info is gleamed from the big macrumor's thread post #1. Be sure to consult the following sections. No way to link to these sections so perhaps open 2 browser windows to read side by side this site and these sections Spoiler: 2 Working AMD Graphics Cards Spoiler: AMD GCN v4

sites.google.com

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

The table I included have brief short hand summaries. Maybe confusing.

I'm unsure about wx4150. Never did one. Better do more research. Not sure anyone summarized latest status

• Post #1 link dated 8/18/21 doesn't say.
• Post #14529 dated 5/13/21 shows mod
• Post #16354 dated 10/4/21 shows mod

Looks like wx4150 ( or some version of it ) need HW mods.

Read the 12,x tab for no HW mod ( Dell wx4130 v1.1, Kepler ) and slight HW mod ( wx3200 ) cards.

iMac+Metal GPU - 12,x

Main Info Source All the info is gleamed from the big macrumor's thread post #1. Be sure to consult the following sections. No way to link to these sections so perhaps open 2 browser windows to read side by side this site and these sections Spoiler: 2 Working AMD Graphics Cards Spoiler: AMD GCN v4

sites.google.com

I have exactly both the HP WX4150 and WX4170 that need to be modified in order to get them work with iMac 2011.
They are both with navy blue color PCB.

 

[dorninko]

You're right! I can't seem to get Migration assistant to work at all. Tried to revert patches but it never seems to happen
Root patches always seem to be there. Is there a way to do it manually?. Followed Mr Macintosh video as well. Pulling my hair out in frustration. I'm going bald rapid

Yes, there is a safe way as I shortly described in my post:

Install the OS clean on a new SSD, create a admin user.
1.) copy your user directory from the old disk to the new ssd into the users directory.
2.) create a new user with exactly the same name as in the old system, the OS will ask you then if you want to use the previously copied directory as the new users directory, click yes and then wait. After that process is finished, you will have a second user with exactly the same settings and documents as in your old system.

Regarding apps: you can copy most of the apps directly from the old disk to the new system into the program directory. Some apps you will have to install new (only a few need that).

I have done that many times, it worked always and is much more reliable and quicker than Migration Assistant.

hope that helps.

 

[howardc64]

Yes, there is a safe way as I shortly described in my post:

Install the OS clean on a new SSD, create a admin user.
1.) copy your user directory from the old disk to the new ssd into the users directory.
2.) create a new user with exactly the same name as in the old system, the OS will ask you then if you want to use the previously copied directory as the new users directory, click yes and then wait. After that process is finished, you will have a second user with exactly the same settings and documents as in your old system.

I do similarly for migration

• On old mac, macOS typically keep all data or a user on the home folder. Make sure this is true
• On new mac, make user account with identical user and home folder name (note these 2 are potentially different and can be important if you have aliases), then copy everything from old mac to this account on the new mac. For a few folders like Music, etc. I manually make sure data from old mac is placed there.
• For apps, I just reinstall

For backup

So far I just use time machine but unknown if can be recovered under OCLP. If backup size isn't huge and everything is under account home folder, can setup google drive to maintain a backup of the home folder.