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

[howardc64]

Can someone point me to the post about AMD GPU screw incompatibility. I have a 2010 27" iMac 11,3 I'm upgrading. I have a Dell WX 4150 I am installing. Some where I Have seen a post about screw size incompatibility. Can someone let me know where that is? I'm obviously searching wrong.

Maybe you are referring to the smaller bolt holes on the X-Bracket? Read X Bracket here to press out the smaller hole inserts. I think others (in this thread somewhere) have also found the smaller bolts that works with the smaller hole inserts.

Key is to make sure the bolt head doesn't scrap / touch the logic board on install so a proper sized bevel head bolt sinking deeper into the original X Bracket beveled bolt hole is desirable.

 

[Radmcg]

Thanks howardc64. link is very informative.

 

[Tim_imac]

Does anyone have any inside info on when navi 14 cards will work on Ventura and later macOS (with oclp). Such a shame there haven’t been any updates in a long time. It would be a game changer if they could work.
Or is there any way to get them to work? I’ve got rx5500 on one of my iMac that is mainly windows, but stuck on wx7100 on the other one so I can use Sequoia

 

[grosmario]

for w5170m card owners and xurco

hi, i just installed sequoia on 2011 12,2 imac,
just to be clear , i made the usb drive installer on another machine and ran opencore patcher on it before booting it on this

--i found my flickering problem, i didnt put all lcd screen screws back ,glass screen was pushing on lcd led connector...
i saw a youtube video of a guy pushing on the screen...and checked mine.;;
i installed mojave...instead....

 

[theweard]

so guys, I have a little gift for you to give back after such an incredible thread
hope you like it, the headaches to get it running were immens for me as a newb.

I couldn't stand it to use fckin windows to flash the cards and so I prepared this ~350mb drive

I created a Linux Live USB (based on grml.org) Thumb Drive with nvflash_linux and Nicks Bioses preloaded. and its booting by itself so you can work blind with a new unpatched nvidia card plugged in. Also, its starting a ssh daemon and using DHCP to get an IP so you can remote login

Steps

Download
14 days left to download, uploaded here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/cztz4xqj2sru9gj/2011_imac_usb.zip/file

mirror by NOTNICE, thnx: https://cloud.notnlce.com/index.php/s/xkJP34GD6a9WziE/download

latest updated Version by @The_Croupier (thnx!) Post: #13,624 > ---- Download here ---- <


Prepare USB Drive or SD Card
so, you take a small usb thumb drive, partition it with disk utility on a Mac: GPT + FAT32
and just unzip the files structure onto the drive, no dd or etcher or something. just copy paste it. folder structure see attached screenshot. (you can remove the .roms I downloaded and download itself if you want to be sure about the correct file size. I did not verify them at all. use/flash at your own risk please)

Test & Try
test your thumb drive with a more or less working GPU/ external Screen or just have faith in me

Swap Hardware
swap your GPU to NVIDIA and (!) disconnect every SSD/HDD, makes it easier to boot blindly from one USB or SD Card, connect the ETH Cable (!), I repeat again and this is not a drill: use Network CABLE only not WIFI « big Nono!

Find IP
let the iMac boot, everything is black, the boot loader is waiting 20s before booting, so give the whole process 1min time, then head over to your Router Page and find the right IP that the iMac got through DHCP

SSH to the iMac
now fire up your terminal on a Win/Mac/Linux Machine of your choice and ssh to your iMac with
ssh root@YOURIP
Password: flash
Confirm the ssh id with yes and you should be in your iMac

Working Directory (in MY release, other or newer releases of GRML use different directories, you have to find out by yourself)
cd /lib/live/mount/medium/flash

read the RADME in there… I will enjoy my brand new k2000m in my 27" 2011 iMac with Catalina 10.15.3
… and because this is so easy, I rebuild it to a K1100M and flashed that also

(someone could write some fancy scripts but I thought its saver that everyone is doing it command by command and don't stop thinking and trusting some scripts)

I am struggeling any help would be appreciated.

 

[howardc64]

I am struggeling any help would be appreciated.

Error says no card found. Maybe basic debugging step should be

1. plug a known good card (original?)
2. make sure it boots and displays to confirms its connected properly and working
3. run grml with correct flash tool (all iMacs were OEM AMD I think) and see if can read the ROM

 

[Pengy_X]

Hello,

I have a 2011 27" iMac that I'm trying to upgrade. The original GPU was perfectly fine, but I wanted metal support, so I upgraded to a FirePro M5100. I flashed the GPU with the VBIOS from the Github listed on page 1 using a CH341A programmer. Before swapping the graphics card, I installed macOS Monterey using OCLP, including root patching. Unfortunately, after the swap, the internal display remains completely black—no image or backlight. I've tried modifying the config.plist (framebuffer enable), but I can't say I know what I'm doing, and nothing has worked so far.

I realized that the FirePro M5100 is listed as incompatible with my 12,2 iMac, and I accept my lapse in judgment. I chose the GPU was because it was cheap, and I was hoping to make it work. I'm wondering if there's a workaround or patch that might get the internal panel working (something I might have missed while reading through this forum). If anyone has done it or has any suggestions (even if it’s "give up"), I’d really appreciate your help.

 

[Pacific1972]

Hello,

I have a 2011 27" iMac that I'm trying to upgrade. The original GPU was perfectly fine, but I wanted metal support, so I upgraded to a FirePro M5100. I flashed the GPU with the VBIOS from the Github listed on page 1 using a CH341A programmer. Before swapping the graphics card, I installed macOS Monterey using OCLP, including root patching. Unfortunately, after the swap, the internal display remains completely black—no image or backlight. I've tried modifying the config.plist (framebuffer enable), but I can't say I know what I'm doing, and nothing has worked so far.

I realized that the FirePro M5100 is listed as incompatible with my 12,2 iMac, and I accept my lapse in judgment. I chose the GPU was because it was cheap, and I was hoping to make it work. I'm wondering if there's a workaround or patch that might get the internal panel working (something I might have missed while reading through this forum). If anyone has done it or has any suggestions (even if it’s "give up"), I’d really appreciate your help.

Perhaps you can use an additional external Monitor with Adapter cable from the iMac. Sometimes
there is an inverter fault because spare parts getting older and older. Alternatively make an
ALT-CMD-P-R reset at startup. So look back to page 1 and look for spoiler
AMD GCN v1-3 / KNOWN ISSUES ...look for GPU ident and pcb colour (HW modification ?),
- but also I can say, that a M5100 in a 27" (2011) is not the best solution, alternatively take a cheap
K1100 or K2100, better a WX4130 (often this card is more expensive than a whole defected A1312).

 

[Pengy_X]

Perhaps you can use an additional external Monitor with Adapter cable from the iMac. Sometimes
there is an inverter fault because spare parts getting older and older. Alternatively make an
ALT-CMD-P-R reset at startup. So look back to page 1 and look for spoiler
AMD GCN v1-3 / KNOWN ISSUES ...look for GPU ident and pcb colour (HW modification ?),
- but also I can say, that a M5100 in a 27" (2011) is not the best solution, alternatively take a cheap
K1100 or K2100, better a WX4130 (often this card is more expensive than a whole defected A1312).

Thank you for the help. I read through the forum again and discovered that I have just flashed the wrong vBIOS. The HynixAFS-GOP one is correct, and I have an internal display output now.

 

[kzk32]

My iMac 12.2 gpu has failed and it was an AMD Radeon HD 6770m and I found an eBay listing with flashed bios but it is the Nvidia 675mx 4gb.From this thread I found that this gpu needed the 3 pipe cooler and I asked the seller if it will work with my heatsink, he said it will be fine has anyone tried it;

Here is the eBay listing:https://www.ebay.com/itm/1357586569...wlanTbcVzQuU5zDJqp6w31P82Wk=|tkp:BFBMuqf0t9pl

 

[grosmario]

My iMac 12.2 gpu has failed and it was an AMD Radeon HD 6770m and I found an eBay listing with flashed bios but it is the Nvidia 675mx 4gb.From this thread I found that this gpu needed the 3 pipe cooler and I asked the seller if it will work with my heatsink, he said it will be fine has anyone tried it;

Here is the eBay listing:https://www.ebay.com/itm/135758656960?_skw=Apple+iMac+27"+A1312+2011+4GB+Graphics+Card+-+Replacement+for+AMD+Radeon+HD+6770&itmmeta=01JV9QX2EMMZK3QQ8G0642YDVB&hash=item1f9bd8b5c0:g:2tgAAOSwUrFeDWYA&itmprp=enc:AQAKAAABMFkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1foNCopKgfaVqveWqBh6LfvanEMSbVK0OKES5yI/Jz9HIdemn/tOeCdcrKuBcjbxaFu3Iy2xGTo452CVntJd1UgX62urNoW1mE22I5WBvbpOIUEAJ2w9x5A3POT07EfSLK5uRI9pJ88VRwOUzTeA6Mhq7PtA7xyhwWwA5jsKcRBloz7fPY53jHjr1UwGuBV55crrv5e8xRplhetR56BNOVIL9AgWPKmaxhFQ4TRfBjP97X/FMP+j9jB6UbHluPkz02G50ImC98emwIAB0gdQT6dLS61ALXp9sT4jA4Hvpb4vURha91Nz2p1uUFkMg4ckXoc2ji4zMI2H691GhS5AyqsgBhpeQ0M55eBY4J+wlanTbcVzQuU5zDJqp6w31P82Wk=|tkp:BFBMuqf0t9pl

hi,
buy one of these ,there are cheap enough..

https://www.leboncoin.fr/ad/ordinateurs/2837419151

 

[shimmyjolt]

Hi, I want to upgrade the graphics card in my 2011 iMac 12,1 21.5" A1311 and I want to know if I can take a card from a 2012/2013 iMac and swap it in. A NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M or similar variation. Thanks!

 

[internetzel]

Hi, I want to upgrade the graphics card in my 2011 iMac 12,1 21.5" A1311 and I want to know if I can take a card from a 2012/2013 iMac and swap it in. A NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M or similar variation. Thanks!

2011 iMacs are the last models which had swappable graphics cards.

 

[Terraaustralis]

2011 iMacs are the last models which had swappable graphics cards.

What you mean by swappable cards please?

To my knowledge, all MXM3 GPU cards are removable in all Intel 27" iMacs up to 2019 and various AMD cards or flashed cards can be inserted.

• I think Shimmyjolt was asking if the Nvidia G Force GT 650M could replace the AMD 6970 (or AMD 6770) in the 2011 iMacs.

• I would similarly appreciate learning if a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX from a 2012 iMac can replace the AMD6970 in the 2011 iMac. I am not seeking Metal, I just want a reliable GPU for Lion and/or Yosamite.

• Am I correct in assuming the Nvidia cards would need to be flashed?

• What would be the oldest OSX the above Nvidia cards would recognise?

 

[internetzel]

Would you care to expand upon that statement about swappable cards please.

To my knowledge, MXM3 GPU cards are removable in all iMacs up to 2019 and various AMD cards or flashed cards can be inserted.

I think Shimmyjolt was asking if the Nvidia G Force GT 650M could replace the AMD 6970 or AMD 6770 in the 2011 iMac.

I would similarly appreciate learning if a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX from a 2012 iMac can replace the AMD6970 in the 2011 iMac. I am not seeking Metal, I just want a reliable GPU for Lion and/or Yosamite.

Am I correct in assuming the Nvidia cards would need to be flashed?

What would be the oldest OSX these Nvidia cards would recognise?

Help would be appreciated.

Well, many Intel iMacs until and including the 2011 models had MXM slots - but not all of them! All later models do have the GPU soldered on the main board.
A 2012 iMac with an MXM card would be a big surprise, indeed! Maybe some prototypes were built that way?

 

[Terraaustralis]

Well, many Intel iMacs until the 2011 models had MXM slots - but not all of them! All later models do have the GPU soldered on the main board.
A 2012 iMac with an MXM card would be a big surprise, indeed! Maybe some prototypes were built that way?

Hi Internetzel,

Your reference to soldering of GPU made me check the iFixit video’s for the 27" iMacs 2012 -2017.
The logic board and graphics board are indeed integrated which is the point you are making. Thank you for making me do the research!

However regarding the 2011 27" iMac your comments do mislead as the AMD Radeon has an MXM3 card which is detachable/upgradeable.

This shows the Nvidia cards are not swappable.

 

[kzk32]

hi,
buy one of these ,there are cheap enough..

https://www.leboncoin.fr/ad/ordinateurs/2837419151

They are not already flashed and I’m not gonna flash them it’s beyond my capabilities. I bought the one I linked in the previous post.