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

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The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
Sooooo the Backlight control is just a driver issue....

I just installed Mint Linux on my iMac an the Backlight controls are working. When I am at 100% the power consumption is about 140 Watt, on 50% brightness it is about 100 Watt. And the lowest setting, almost dark as the night, is around 60 Watt. So it is controlling the backlight rather than a darker image.

Bildschirmfoto vom 2019-06-25 16-34-39.png


Oh an Mint linus is working out of the box with the K1100M.
 
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Roman78 said:
Sooooo the Backlight control is just a driver issue....

I just installed Mint Linux on my iMac an the Backlight controls are working. When I am at 100% the power consumption is about 140 Watt, on 50% brightness it is about 100 Watt. And the lowest setting, almost dark as the night, is around 60 Watt. So it is controlling the backlight rather than a darker image.

View attachment 844957

Oh an Mint linus is working out of the box with the K1100M.
Click to expand...

Yes, someone else reported the same behaviour with Ubuntu too. There has to be a software solution to solve this somehow...

Btw, if you change the brightness and boot back into macOS, it will reset to 100%?
 
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Roman78 said:
Sooooo the Backlight control is just a driver issue....

I just installed Mint Linux on my iMac an the Backlight controls are working. When I am at 100% the power consumption is about 140 Watt, on 50% brightness it is about 100 Watt. And the lowest setting, almost dark as the night, is around 60 Watt. So it is controlling the backlight rather than a darker image.

View attachment 844957

Oh an Mint linus is working out of the box with the K1100M.
Click to expand...

nice,
maybe we can find some kind of way, to for example modify the MacOS kext which is used for controlling the screen brightness for our iMac's.. ?
So that also macOS has normal brightness controll back..
 
No surprise Linux works, most distros have specific patches for Apple / Nvidia issues.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Debugging/Backlight

I'm sure the Kepler cards could work with a Kext / ACPI mod, RehabMan is the guy to ask:

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...ontrol-using-applebacklightfixup-kext.218222/

But most of the usual Hackintosh tricks won't work because of the way the iGPU is configured in these iMacs,

and I'm pretty sure AMD / Maxwell / Pascal cards would still need a firmware / hardware solution anyway.

Something like the Digispark ATtiny85 board, they're dirt cheap and could be installed externally.

http://digistump.com/products/1
 
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Yes, but it's sold out now and I don't know if they will even make any more. I think @dosdude1 is working on a firmware level back-light fix for the MacBook DeMux so a DyingLight won't be needed anymore.

I sent him a message to ask if we can just buy the driver / firmware to use on other ATtiny85 boards, no reply yet, but he's a very busy guy. If that won't work maybe he could look into a backlight kext / installer patch for those with upgraded iMacs?
 
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Roman78 said:
Sooooo the Backlight control is just a driver issue....

I just installed Mint Linux on my iMac an the Backlight controls are working. When I am at 100% the power consumption is about 140 Watt, on 50% brightness it is about 100 Watt. And the lowest setting, almost dark as the night, is around 60 Watt. So it is controlling the backlight rather than a darker image.

View attachment 844957

Oh an Mint linus is working out of the box with the K1100M.
Click to expand...

So what machine is this on and what video card did you install in it? Theres no mods to anything, just a plain install of Mint Linux?
[doublepost=1561487908][/doublepost]
Nick [D]vB said:
It's not magic, those linux devs sat down and worked out how to patch it...
Click to expand...

The source is not public for any of that stuff? I haven't been in the Linux scene since the early 90s where you had access to all of the source code back with Slackware 2.30.
 
Looking at the linux patches should be informative, the nouveau project etc, and all the Hackintosh stuff.

Patching the PNLF / ACPI "method" seems to be a dead end, if we could just talk directly to the hardware...
 
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Allistah said:
So what machine is this on and what video card did you install in it? Theres no mods to anything, just a plain install of Mint Linux?
[doublepost=1561487908][/doublepost]
Click to expand...

I have the iMac 12,2 27" 3,1Ghz and the K1100M as GPU. Install plain latest Mint version and it worked out of the box with the default open driver.
 
Nick [D]vB said:
The RX560 is a bit tricky, there are at least two versions of the WX4170 card, the one I tested had a blank vbios that you can “blind flash” using a windows start-up script, DVD, by remote access (TeamViewer etc) or with a programmer clip. But, the version in that eBay listing above seems to be missing a vbios chip, so you might actually need to solder one on (there’s a good chance that tiny square IC is a vbios EEPROM, but it looks a lot like a power component to me). You would then also need to do the back-light mod.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good path forward, which vbios you were using that ended up working? and which version of the card did you have?
 
Ooze said:
Sounds like a good path forward, which vbios you were using that ended up working? and which version of the card did you have?
Click to expand...
I have the first version with a normal vbios chip, I'm tempted to buy one of the other type to see if it really has an EEPROM chip, if not I could solder one to those pads easy enough. It's a good price and they don't come-up very often. Mine came blank, I think they all do, but I found 4 working roms: one from an RX460, the original HP, and an older Pegatron version. Insanely, the vbios from the undetectable WX4150 card also works fine on the WX4170! Go figure...

I'm still testing but the best vbios to use probably depends on if you are going to do the boot-screen mod. I'm looking into making a boot disk to blind-flash the vbios and the bootrom at the same time. In fact it should be possible to inject the vbios into the bootrom, which would allow cards with no EEPROM chip to work. That's how the newer Macs and most PC laptops do it now, but I've not been able to make it work yet.
 
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RX560 = WX4170 = Radeon Pro 560. Same chip, different vbios / driver, the rest is just marketing.
 
I still have not swapped my video card yet, but gathering up parts / supplies. So far I have suction cups, K5 Pro, Torx set, heat sink compound, and a spare 500gb Samsung SSD to do all at once. SSD cable is on order. Current 6970m video card still works, but occasionally does wonk out, so might bake in the interim.

Anyone on here willing to sell me a metal / mojave ready (765?) Nvidia card with a flashed bios ready / backlight adjustment working to plug and play for my 2011 imac 27"? Some of you on here are capable of making a nice chunk of cash selling a solution that ticks all the boxes as there are plenty of people capable of swapping cards, but lack tools to flash vbios and skills to install dying light :)

I could probably do the back light fix and vbios on my own, but hardly have enough time anymore. The other thing is we need a consolidated thread with all the steps for going mojave too. There are plenty of videos and instructions for doing video and ssd swaps.

I am sure there are 100's if not 1,000's of people who would pay for a ready to install solution.
 
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I also think that people would like a nice solution like that. But as fas as i know there is no EFI Firmware for the GTX765M. If so, some guys (like me) could make a lot of money fixing dead iMacs. Cheapest card i have working is the K1100M, cost 30 Euros and is faster as the 6970M, and uses less power (only 40 Watt TDP, instead of the 75 of the GTX765 and 6970M). If it would be possible to get a Boot screen, Backlight control and no problems while upgrading to a newer OS, lots of companies could making lots of money.
 
Roman78 said:
I also think that people would like a nice solution like that. But as fas as i know there is no EFI Firmware for the GTX765M. If so, some guys (like me) could make a lot of money fixing dead iMacs. Cheapest card i have working is the K1100M, cost 30 Euros and is faster as the 6970M, and uses less power (only 40 Watt TDP, instead of the 75 of the GTX765 and 6970M). If it would be possible to get a Boot screen, Backlight control and no problems while upgrading to a newer OS, lots of companies could making lots of money.
Click to expand...

People already jumped on this. Last year i was able to pickup multiple dead iMacs for around 100-150EUR on willhaben.at. Now if a new listing pops up, its literally sold under 5 minutes if its below 200EUR. I setup a custom notification, so if a new defect imac is listed, i get a notification immediately. By the time i write a message to the seller, the mac is already reserved or sold... :D
[doublepost=1561638002][/doublepost]
jb1331 said:
I still have not swapped my video card yet, but gathering up parts / supplies. So far I have suction cups, K5 Pro, Torx set, heat sink compound, and a spare 500gb Samsung SSD to do all at once. SSD cable is on order. Current 6970m video card still works, but occasionally does wonk out, so might bake in the interim.

Anyone on here willing to sell me a metal / mojave ready (765?) Nvidia card with a flashed bios ready / backlight adjustment working to plug and play for my 2011 imac 27"? Some of you on here are capable of making a nice chunk of cash selling a solution that ticks all the boxes as there are plenty of people capable of swapping cards, but lack tools to flash vbios and skills to install dying light :)

I could probably do the back light fix and vbios on my own, but hardly have enough time anymore. The other thing is we need a consolidated thread with all the steps for going mojave too. There are plenty of videos and instructions for doing video and ssd swaps.

I am sure there are 100's if not 1,000's of people who would pay for a ready to install solution.
Click to expand...

The 765M is Mojave ready out of the box, without backlight and boot screen. A bios that would solve this does not exists. Just install Mojave with your (non)working 6970m, swap the card and you are done. The screen on max brightness puts out too much heat though, so you cannot use your 27" quietly, you need to ramp up the fan speed to compensate.
 
passatgt said:
People already jumped on this. Last year i was able to pickup multiple dead iMacs for around 100-150EUR on willhaben.at. Now if a new listing pops up, its literally sold under 5 minutes if its below 200EUR. I setup a custom notification, so if a new defect imac is listed, i get a notification immediately. By the time i write a message to the seller, the mac is already reserved or sold... :D
Click to expand...

That is indeed extreme. Well i got a 27" one for free some weeks ago for experimenting. And i bought a 21,5" one for 150, but there was a cable defect, the GPU still working.
 
Michael thanks a lot for your article! You are a professional in this topic and can clearly explain details to audience.
Could you please help me in the following question.
I have got iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011) with GPU AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512 MB and would like to replace video card to the most productive which will match this Mac.
I read your comments about successful attempts Nvidia Quadro K2000M/K1100M and GTX 680M
But I’m confused about mxm a/b and UEFI work. And do not clearly understand whether Apple flashes video cards or not. If yes, how should I choose video card?
I will be very grateful if you connect with me!
Thank you!
 
njysx said:
Michael thanks a lot for your article! You are a professional in this topic and can clearly explain details to audience.
Could you please help me in the following question.
I have got iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011) with GPU AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512 MB and would like to replace video card to the most productive which will match this Mac.
I read your comments about successful attempts Nvidia Quadro K2000M/K1100M and GTX 680M
But I’m confused about mxm a/b and UEFI work. And do not clearly understand whether Apple flashes video cards or not. If yes, how should I choose video card?
I will be very grateful if you connect with me!
Thank you!
Click to expand...

only an MXM A card will fit in the 21.5 iMac. I would go with k2000m or k1100m. It works out of the box, without boot screen and hw brightness control. With that card you will have Mojave support and the performance bump is around 20-30%: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-Quadro-K2000M-vs-AMD-Radeon-HD-6750M/m8574vsm7834
 
Now i have a little problem:

I have black screen on cmd+ r , alt+cmd+r , shift+cmd+alt+r ....i have all time black screen... I can't see bootmanager too...

I have cable to my second monitor connected but its black too....

Mac os wont boot :( and recovety wont work...
 
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