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

[mhafeez]

Hi everybody! I think, that is possible to remove the airport card and connect this intro mini PCI-e port and use any external video card! Some people was able to connect eSATA Mini-PCIe Card! Somebody wants to try?

That's something you do not see everyday. But I am not willing to loose my native WiFi AC & BT4LE at this moment.

 

[Infectum]

That's something you do not see everyday. But I am not willing to loose my native WiFi AC & BT4LE at this moment.

If its work, i prefer to use usb WiFi AC & BT4LE

 

[Dopeyman]

GTX 780m Upgrades



2. The surgery went well. After assembly with just one push on the power button the iMac did lost it's initial boot screen but quickly enters Yosemite without any delays. Oh yes I did sets up the screen sharing before the surgery just in case.

What adapter did you use to install 2 SSD's in the main HD slot?? Are they set up as independent drives or in RAID?

 

[mhafeez]

What adapter did you use to install 2 SSD's in the main HD slot?? Are they set up as independent drives or in RAID?

No adapters what so ever. Since the SSDs so light, I just re-use the original HDD side bracket to attach the SSDs with 2 small screws and some strong double-sided tape to lock the SSDs together. The SSDs are in RAID0 mode.

 

[yifuhood]

No adapters what so ever. Since the SSDs so light, I just re-use the original HDD side bracket to attach the SSDs with 2 small screws and some strong double-sided tape to lock the SSDs together. The SSDs are in RAID0 mode.

thank you Dopeyman for asking mhafeez about this.
why do you do that with putting those 2 SSDs together? why not leave one of it under the optical drive? does it do something to the iMac internal temperature?

 

[UssCompany]

Guys, do you think I'd be able to replace my Radeon HD 6770M with the upcoming R9 M390X?

 

[mhafeez]

thank you Dopeyman for asking mhafeez about this.
why do you do that with putting those 2 SSDs together? why not leave one of it under the optical drive? does it do something to the iMac internal temperature?

I did not put the SSD there because I want a smoother and more airflow running under the optical drive and flows to the GPU's heatsink. My upgraded GPU (the GTX780M) produces a lot of heat comparing from my stock GPU. Moreover, the space from the main storage seems bigger and much more easier to me to access during self servicing.

 

[yifuhood]

I did not put the SSD there because I want a smoother and more airflow running under the optical drive and flows to the GPU's heatsink. My upgraded GPU (the GTX780M) produces a lot of heat comparing from my stock GPU. Moreover, the space from the main storage seems bigger and much more easier to me to access during self servicing.

thank you a lot , I have just did it some how like you too . the GPU HS is much cooler. now is under 45 C-60C.

 

[Infectum]

It's possible that this http://www.aliexpress.com/item/for-...Video-Graphics-Card-for-Dell/32328312767.html graphics card will work on iMac 21" mid 2011?

 

[mhafeez]

It's possible that this http://www.aliexpress.com/item/for-...Video-Graphics-Card-for-Dell/32328312767.html graphics card will work on iMac 21" mid 2011?

It is possible but since the MXM card uses a normal non-EFI vBios, you will loose your initial bootscreen.

Concerning bootcamp etc see this thread The concept is just the same, only instead of standard PCI iMacs use NVidias MXM 3.0 protocol which really is just PCIe anyways.

 

[Infectum]

It is possible but since the MXM card uses a normal non-EFI vBios, you will loose your initial bootscreen.

But if i flash it with imacs bios? And which cheap card (up to 250$) i can use without any problem? The reason is that's temporal solution, in half year i will buy new machine, so i don't want to spend money for now.

 

[visusest]

I have a 2011 27" with the 2GB 6970 and I'm thinking about buying a few 6970 MXM's to see if I could flash them with the BIOS/EFI dumped from the stock card. I have a 2010 27" (with the 5670) that I can dismantle and set up as a test machine. I'd also like to try getting my hands on a BIOS/EFI dump from the R9 M290X in the 2015 retina to see how hard it would be to get one of those up and running. Maybe MacVidCards could offer some help with the ROMs, but I'm in Pennsylvania ... nowhere near LA.

I'm not a full repair shop, but I do a lot of mac repairs and I'm thinking about setting up a turnkey service for 2009-2011 iMac Video card upgrades. I've also done quite a few LVDS connector repairs and I'm thinking about a turnkey service for that as well.

Anyway, I'd love to help with the cause however I can.

 

[Backwardscire]

Hello all, like many here, found this thread and was inspired! I have a Late 2009 27" iMac with i7 and 8GB of RAM. In many ways, the computer is still great, but with a stock video card (4750M, 512MB) I was looking for a little boost for Starcraft II. (modest gaming, not expecting to play even last gen games).

I sourced a bare apple 6970M 1GB from e-bay and upgraded the card in this iMac. I thought that everything was working fine, booted with Apple logo, desktop video, and quick Cinebench OGl runs showed performance spot on to reference. But found that once I started doing anything 3D beyond a few minutes, the graphics would start freezing every 10 seconds or so. To me, seems like the card is pausing to control heat load.

I ran some OGL benchmarks in stress test mode and saw the temp on the GPU heatsink run up to around 157F and plateau there, but the fans never spun up automatically. This is confirmed by the iStat logs, I don't see the system controlling the ODD fan any longer to cope when the temp on the GPU heatsink goes up. If I manually crank up the fan speed, it doesn't seem to hiccup, but performance isn't up to reference once hot. Luckily, I do not see any artifacts when hot or under load, just stuttering performance, even on low detail settings.

Reference iStat menu screen shot to show what is detected, but the GPU was cool when writing this post. Strangely, I do not see a temperature reading for GPU Die. Not sure if I saw one for the 4750M, but I'm not about to rip out the card and check. Maybe this is the reason?

I did do a CPU test (8 threads of "yes" as per http://osxdaily.com/2012/10/02/stress-test-mac-cpu/) and once hot the CPU fan and HDD fan did start to ramp up so control of these two fans is at least still automatic. Just the ODD fan to keep the GPU cool is an issue.


Any suggestions on this or am I pretty much left with just manually controlling the fan when I want to game?

Oh, and the other upgrade was a 500GB SSD to replace the internal HDD. Used the OWC replacement HDD temp sensor to avoid the HDD fan running at full blast. Already feels like a new machine otherwise and looking forward to stringing this one along for another couple of years!



Thanks and keep on inspiring us!

 

[norsemity]

Some photos, comparing the stock MXM-A card to an MXM-B card and pictures of the MXM-B card installed.

Interesting. I called an Apple dealer today and asked if was possible to upgrade the card, but they said it was not on any iMac. I am interested mainly because of video. I recorded som 120 fps video, but playback is choppy.

Of course I have minidisplayport to displayport as my secondary display. Anyway, was the performance noticeably?

 

[VicLev]

It is possible but since the MXM card uses a normal non-EFI vBios, you will loose your initial bootscreen.

have you tried this rom? http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=07545500285316150386

it can be opened by Kepler bios tweaker, not sure how the MXM card will work with it.

btw, today i have installed dell 770m 3gb in my friend's iMac 2011 and it works! no bootmenu though and no Bootcamp support(black screen), will try that one with Clevo vbios soon as that one is more compatible on any other system. tried 780m dell and 680m dell with uefi vbios with no luck. 780m does boot, but no picture, 680m just failed to start at all.

but how come 770m driver installed in OSX? there were no mac released with it, right?

 

[Fl0r!an]

have you tried this rom? http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=07545500285316150386

it can be opened by Kepler bios tweaker, not sure how the MXM card will work with it.

btw, today i have installed dell 770m 3gb in my friend's iMac 2011 and it works! no bootmenu though and no Bootcamp support(black screen), will try that one with Clevo vbios soon as that one is more compatible on any other system. tried 780m dell and 680m dell with uefi vbios with no luck. 780m does boot, but no picture, 680m just failed to start at all.

but how come 770m driver installed in OSX? there were no mac released with it, right?

This is a plain legacy vBIOS without any EFI/UEFI stuff, that won't help for getting bootscreens.

The GTX 770M is the same GK106 chip as in the GTX 675M iMac, so it's no surprise drivers are there.
I think it would be possible to combine an iMac EFI with the vBIOS of your GTX 770, but there's a good chance of bricking the card if something goes wrong, so I wouldn't do this unless you know how to unbrick the card (requires some soldering).

 

[VicLev]

are you sure the rom i uploaded is not EFI? because i have extracted it from Apple Imac 27" 2014 firmware.

This is a plain legacy vBIOS without any EFI/UEFI stuff, that won't help for getting bootscreens.

The GTX 770M is the same GK106 chip as in the GTX 675M iMac, so it's no surprise drivers are there.
I think it would be possible to combine an iMac EFI with the vBIOS of your GTX 770, but there's a good chance of bricking the card if something goes wrong, so I wouldn't do this unless you know how to unbrick the card (requires some soldering).

 

[VicLev]

The GTX 770M is the same GK106 chip as in the GTX 675M iMac, so it's no surprise drivers are there.
I think it would be possible to combine an iMac EFI with the vBIOS of your GTX 770, but there's a good chance of bricking the card if something goes wrong, so I wouldn't do this unless you know how to unbrick the card (requires some soldering).

actually you are wrong, 675mx is gk104 chip, a cut version of 680m,

770m though is a gk106 chip, also both of the chips have different hardware ID, though the Mac recognizes 770m as 770m.

 

[Fl0r!an]

675MX is GK106.
I'm not very surprised that this card works since Nvidia drivers are very generic (in a MacPro or Hackintosh they'll support quite a lot of cards that were never built into a genuine Mac). You might also want to try the Nvidia Web Drivers, maybe they'll enable those other 2 cards.

When you open those files in a hex editor, you'll find only one single PCI-ROM, which is a legacy vBIOS. Usually the file should contain a 2nd PCI-ROM, which is the EFI part (or UEFI for PC cards). That's at least how that looks on normal PCI cards.
I think dumping the ROM with nvflash is a better approach.

 

[VicLev]

no, 675mx is not gk106, that is a mistake, same as 670mx.
, trust me, i work with gaming laptops, repair and upgrade.

look here https://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/1414/geforce-gtx-675mx.html

gk104

can you share the 2nd rom part the contain UEFI from some Geforce Kepler card?

 

[VicLev]

if 675mx is a gk106 card - then it would work in MSI gt780dx notebook, but it doesnt. Gk106 is a newer chip that only exists in 765m and 770m

 

[VicLev]

does the uefi part begins with "BEGIN CERTIFICATE" string?

 

[Fl0r!an]

Okay, good to know

I've attached a stock Apple GTX 680 MacPro ROM containing a Mac EFI (not UEFI). UEFI ROMs can be easily found on techpowerup. Note that sewing this together with an stock PC ROM isn't completely straightforward and will likely produce a brick. I'm also not 100% sure that iMacs need exactly the same type of EFI as the classic MacPros do.

If you're able to do some soldering in worst case (=> short-circuit the EEPROM or exchange it) I'd help you to built a Mac EFI ROM for your 770M. I can do this with normal PCI cards in a MacPro, but never tried it on an iMac card.

EDIT: Nope, that certificate stuff is another part of the ROM. Have a look here: Kepler EFI @ netkas.org

 

[VicLev]

no need for soldering at my end, because i have a laptop with 2 dedicated MXM slots, so any bios bricking is easily solved.

ok, i've looked through that 680 gtx mac vbios and it's quite different from Dell's 780m vbios.

any guideline to where to look for the part at which the UEfI section of vbios may start form? a word? a hex value?

Okay, good to know

I've attached a stock Apple GTX 680 MacPro ROM containing a Mac EFI (not UEFI). UEFI ROMs can be easily found on techpowerup. Note that sewing this together with an stock PC ROM isn't completely straightforward and will likely produce a brick. I'm also not 100% sure that iMacs need exactly the same type of EFI as the classic MacPros do.

If you're able to do some soldering in worst case (=> short-circuit the EEPROM or exchange it) I'd help you to built a Mac EFI ROM for your 770M. I can do this with normal PCI cards in a MacPro, but never tried it on an iMac card.

EDIT: Nope, that certificate stuff is another part of the ROM. Have a look here: Kepler EFI @ netkas.org

 

[Fl0r!an]

Every PCI ROM will start with 0x55AA followed by the length. When you multiply that length with 512 bytes (or 0x200) you'll get the total length of that ROM. The UEFI or EFI ROM is the 2nd one.
The first ROM usually starts after a short header section (1kg or 1.5kb).

Having 2 dedicated MXM slots is very good, but it's still possible that you bugger up the ROM so hard that it can't be flashed again without shorting the EEPROM or even exchanging it. Be aware of that.

If you're interested, post your vBIOS here, I'll combine it with the Mac 680 EFI later (or tomorrow).