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

[grosmario]

Hi, i have a iMac 21,5 2011 Model and i installed a RX 560 (TYPE A) from a Sonnet Breakaway Puck. Now it boots with a black screen. External Monitor connected over Thunderbolt works fine. Is there a custom bios wich would work for this card?

Link to my Bios

backup.rom

drive.google.com

hi,
i added gop (missing)to your rom from winraid forum : GOP_Updater_v1.9.6.5.k_mod_v0.5.2
i didn t do anything to this file ,just ran it : compare these two file or run but yourself in windows 10;

 

[Lpumg]

Hi, please forgive me if this post doesn't belong here. I have a 2009 Imac 27" i7-860. I upgraded the graphics card to an RX480.
I flashed the EG vBIOS for the graphics card, and it works flawlessly, including the brightness control.
!!!But after the upgrade, a CPU issue developed: the i7-860 runs at 1197 MHz (minimum 9x multiplier) instead of 2800 MHz.

During the Valley test, the CPU and GPU don't even get warm. And the test results are even lower than with the original HD 5750 GPU.
The issue is definitely related to the graphics card upgrade; all temperature sensors are connected correctly. I tried restoring everything to its original state (returning the original graphics card), and after that, the processor runs at its normal frequency (2800 MHz).
Any ideas?

 

[Jani8022]

Hi, i have a iMac 21,5 2011 Model and i installed a RX 560 (TYPE A) from a Sonnet Breakaway Puck. Now it boots with a black screen. External Monitor connected over Thunderbolt works fine. Is there a custom bios wich would work for this card?

Link to my Bios

backup.rom

drive.google.com

Some news about my "so called" RX560 4gb MXM Type A Card...

1. on the Chip in the middle: 215 090 8018 - from what i found its a RX550?
2. Vram: Micron D9VVQ
3. i tried some ROMs from @Ausdauersportler but they all have 512kb and my dump has 256kb so i can´t flash any of them.

 

[Jani8022]

hi,
i added gop (missing)to your rom from winraid forum : GOP_Updater_v1.9.6.5.k_mod_v0.5.2
i didn t do anything to this file ,just ran it : compare these two file or run but yourself in windows 10;

Thank you very much Mario! I flashed your edited ROM and the result is the same. External Monitor works, internal is Black

 

[u46777]

You need to flash one of the WX7100-VBIOSes from here to your WX7100 in order to get the native boot screen back:
https://github.com/Ausdauersportler/IMAC-EFI-BOOT-SCREEN/tree/main/EG - just try them in the order they appear there and stick with whichever is the first one to work stably.

I want to express my deepest gratitude to the person who gave me advice in response to my post and my request. The vBios firmware linked in the response to my request worked wonders and finally solved the EFI boot screen issue, which I had previously spent months trying to resolve. Everything works perfectly now. And for those reading this, I'd like to point out that the third diagnostic LED is indeed not lit, even though the fourth is lit and everything works! Thanks again! I've attached a photo...

 

[internetzel]

Hi, please forgive me if this post doesn't belong here. I have a 2009 Imac 27" i7-860. I upgraded the graphics card to an RX480.
I flashed the EG vBIOS for the graphics card, and it works flawlessly, including the brightness control.
!!!But after the upgrade, a CPU issue developed: the i7-860 runs at 1197 MHz (minimum 9x multiplier) instead of 2800 MHz.

During the Valley test, the CPU and GPU don't even get warm. And the test results are even lower than with the original HD 5750 GPU.
The issue is definitely related to the graphics card upgrade; all temperature sensors are connected correctly. I tried restoring everything to its original state (returning the original graphics card), and after that, the processor runs at its normal frequency (2800 MHz).
Any ideas?View attachment 2587102

The GPU heatsink sensor seems to be missing!

Please check again with your original GPU - it should appear!

 

[internetzel]

Thank you very much Mario! I flashed your edited ROM and the result is the same. External Monitor works, internal is Black

You can try the attached VBIOS.
It has a GOP added, plus some modifications which should let your internal screen appear as internal and enable the brightness slider - the backlight should stay off nevertheless but using a flashlight you should be able to see the screen content on the internal screen.
In case it works as I think it should, I could continue to try making the backlight work for real.
(you're the second one to ask for a VBIOS for that very special - and fast! - card, but now I know some more important things about those AMD VBIOSes, so maybe we can get further this time!)

 

[Lpumg]

Датчик температуры радиатора графического процессора, похоже, отсутствует!
View attachment 2587584
Пожалуйста, проверьте еще раз с вашей оригинальной видеокартой — она должна отобразиться!

Thank you for your reply! I'm adding a few more photos:

 

[Lpumg]

internetzel, thanks for the tip. Everything worked! Since I had different heatsinks on my RX480 and HD 5750 GPUs, the RX 480 apparently had contact issues. I took everything apart again, improved the contact, and reassembled it. Everything works perfectly now.
Now I'm going to upgrade to an i7 875k CPU for overclocking.

 

[Jani8022]

You can try the attached VBIOS.
It has a GOP added, plus some modifications which should let your internal screen appear as internal and enable the brightness slider - the backlight should stay off nevertheless but using a flashlight you should be able to see the screen content on the internal screen.
In case it works as I think it should, I could continue to try making the backlight work for real.
(you're the second one to ask for a VBIOS for that very special - and fast! - card, but now I know some more important things about those AMD VBIOSes, so maybe we can get further this time!)

I've flashed your ROM and the screen is working (Brightness Control also)! With OCLP, I also have the boot picker and boot screen. My Geekbench Metal score under Mojave was around 18K (Sequioa 16.7K), so I think it's running fine. I really appreciate your help! You're the best Thank you!

 

[internetzel]

I've flashed your ROM and the screen is working (Brightness Control also)! With OCLP, I also have the boot picker and boot screen. My Geekbench Metal score under Mojave was around 18K (Sequioa 16.7K), so I think it's running fine. I really appreciate your help! You're the best Thank you!

Oh, that's really great!
On the other Sonnet RX560 where this ROM was tried, the screen backlight didn't switch on - maybe that card was damaged...?
Many VBIOSes cause problems in the iMacs, like running with throttled performance after sleeping some time and waking up again. Let's hope, this VBIOSes doesn't.

 

[imacker2011]

Unfortunately, I have issues with the external display output on two 2011 27" iMacs with K2100m GPUs. The graphics cards were flashed with the respective ROM included in Ausdauersportler’s November Rain Linux image. I will explain the issues subsequently; they were present from the beginning, but after having the display connected for a while under Mac OS it usually disappered. Since I don’t use Windows 11 much on this machine, especially not with a 2nd monitor, it was not a big impediment.

Mac OS Sequoia 15.7.3:
The screen flickers and flashes like an old terrestrial analog TV, with snow and flashes. Sometimes for a second the entire picture is there, then the screen disconnects and starts the flashing over. After letting it sit for a while that usually disappeared nearly completely, but since a few weeks it doesn’t go away anymore. The screen is a converted 2010 iMac, I use a mini DP to DP cable. The screen works flawlessly both with a MacBook Pro 2015 with the same cable as well as with a Lenovo Laptop using HDMI. Display resolution is QHD.

Windows 11:
The external screen only works in 1920x1080. When selecting QHD (2560x1440) either the internal iMac display or the external display starts flashing, though differently than in MacOS. Not „TV mode“ but rather the entire picture flashes at app. 5Hz.

As mentioned before, all three iMacs with K2100m had an error when verifying the flashed ROM. But since boot screen and all worked and they were usable, I didn’t mind.

Does anyone else have these or related issues?

EDIT: I tried a different mini DP -> DP cable and the screen seems to be back to "normal", meaning only occasional glitches. But the Windows resolution problem prevails.

Just a question to all K2100m users on 2011 models : Do you drive a second display without any problems?

 

[TheRetiredOldMan]

Hi, please forgive me if this post doesn't belong here. I have a 2009 Imac 27" i7-860. I upgraded the graphics card to an RX480.
I flashed the EG vBIOS for the graphics card, and it works flawlessly, including the brightness control.
!!!But after the upgrade, a CPU issue developed: the i7-860 runs at 1197 MHz (minimum 9x multiplier) instead of 2800 MHz.

During the Valley test, the CPU and GPU don't even get warm. And the test results are even lower than with the original HD 5750 GPU.
The issue is definitely related to the graphics card upgrade; all temperature sensors are connected correctly. I tried restoring everything to its original state (returning the original graphics card), and after that, the processor runs at its normal frequency (2800 MHz).
Any ideas?View attachment 2587102

Hi there,
Recently, I have also noticed that my machine's CPU speed has been limited at 46% of the nominal 3.4GHz.

I upgraded my machine in 2020 and everything went well, I have also updated macOS from Catalina all the way to Sonoma 14.8.3 yesterday. Attached file shows that my machine will return to the normal CPU speed after sleep for less than a minute, then it will be capped at 46% CPU speed by using Intel Power Gadget App.

I can not tell when this symptom surfaces, just to notice it because I am annoyed by slow youtube rendering recently.
ChatGPT suggests that this is an old machine + new GPU + new macOS combination causing SMC's trigger on CPU speed limit.

Any suggestion will be appreciated.

 

[howardc64]

OCLP macOS UI Performance Evaluation on Kepler GPUs

Kepler is probably the lowest cost metal GPU cards for these iMacs (and certainly for the 2011s that can't use the cheaper GCN3 AMD cards which are becoming more rare anyways) For those aiming just to provide basic metal card upgrades to enable these iMacs visually work perfectly with newer macOS, macOS UI performance (In particular System Settings... menu system) may matter.

If user spend all their time in a browser, System Settings... performance may not matter much. But its ideal that these menus run fast whenever used to give a sense of a fast computer. I've noticed OCLP macOS Sequoia + Kepler has more delays in these menu systems and feels more sluggish.

Tested System Settings... menuing performance on the following on Kepler cards (12,1 + k610M and 14,2 + GeForce GT 755m)

• OCLP Monterey
• OCLP Ventura
• OCLP Sonoma
• OCLP Sequoia

Monterey is fastest but has a WIFI settings bug ( post #9500 on another thread ) that isn't friendly to the novice user
Ventura and Sonoma are both fairly fast. Ventura probably slightly faster (subjective, didn't measure anything) than Sonoma.
Sequoia has a fairly significant slow down compared to the others in this list.
Post #22031 made similar observations between Ventura and Sequoia

Note faster Kepler cards don't help the System Settings... UI performance any. There seems to be extra processing that is happening for these actions on Sequoia.

So for systems intended for novice users with Kepler cards, I'm using Sonoma going forward. Its a fairly new macOS and will support browsers for a few years more certainly. But also feels quite fast around the macOS desktop UI compared to Sequoia.

 

[KlutzyT]

Hello! I have a iMac 21.5 mid 2010 (iMac 11,2) and I bought a Nvidia Quadro K2000M (Kepler) from eBay (seller says it was from a Dell Precision M4700) and put it into the iMac. I did all of the regular steps to flash the vbios, and currently I have the one by Nick [D]vB flashed onto the card. However I had to reinstall macOS since I currently had sequoia with non-metal drivers, so I remade a usb with the OpenCore install (And also had the options changed for the Mac having a Kepler gpu)(I removed the auto-assets.pkg since I heard it would flash non-metal drivers) and it reinstalled fine until it was time for root patching, I installed OCLP, and it installed the wifi patch first separately, and that went fine, but after installing the graphics patches, after a reboot the system gets stuck just before the 2nd phase of the boot process (Seems to be the dreaded gioscreenlock3 issue I dealt with regular hackintoshing), and I cannot get proper GPU Acceleration working. Ive tried Sonoma and got the same result, I've tried spoofing the iMac to a model with a Kepler gpu and got stuck at the prohibited symbol, I've also tried some whatevergreen patches that were not in the config.plist, and nothing has changed. If anyone can point me in the right direction on this, that would be really helpful, I've been at this for hours lol
EDIT: Pulled a panic log from the iMac that it displayed to me when I launched in safe boot mode and attached untitled.txt

 

[howardc64]

Hello! I have a iMac 21.5 mid 2010 (iMac 11,2) and I bought a Nvidia Quadro K2000M (Kepler) from eBay (seller says it was from a Dell Precision M4700) and put it into the iMac. I did all of the regular steps to flash the vbios, and currently I have the one by Nick [D]vB flashed onto the card. However I had to reinstall macOS since I currently had sequoia with non-metal drivers, so I remade a usb with the OpenCore install (And also had the options changed for the Mac having a Kepler gpu)(I removed the auto-assets.pkg since I heard it would flash non-metal drivers) and it reinstalled fine until it was time for root patching, I installed OCLP, and it installed the wifi patch first separately, and that went fine, but after installing the graphics patches, after a reboot the system gets stuck just before the 2nd phase of the boot process (Seems to be the dreaded gioscreenlock3 issue I dealt with regular hackintoshing), and I cannot get proper GPU Acceleration working. Ive tried Sonoma and got the same result, I've tried spoofing the iMac to a model with a Kepler gpu and got stuck at the prohibited symbol, I've also tried some whatevergreen patches that were not in the config.plist, and nothing has changed. If anyone can point me in the right direction on this, that would be really helpful, I've been at this for hours lol
EDIT: Pulled a panic log from the iMac that it displayed to me when I launched in safe boot mode and attached untitled.txt

I've done a 27" 2011 (12,2) + K2000M and 21.5" (12,1) + K610M. Both installed OCLP Sequoia and Sonoma without any problem. But I haven't had experience with 2010s for awhile.

I never heard of auto-asset.pkg removal until your post. I've never done this with probably 20-30 OCLP installs. Latest OCLP will root patch before the final reboot to setup the Mac. I think its best to just let it do this. macOS initial setup goes faster and smoother with already properly root patched macOS anyways.

 

[Pacific1972]

- Visual History Tour 2025 -

Wish You all Merry Christmas 😇 and a Happy New Year 🤗 !!!
...hope You all like my visual content there is no ****in' Plug & Play !

 

[JustPassing]

"From small Acorns grow mighty oaks"

"Apple" silicon indeed...

Merry Christmas to all the MicroMen ! 🎅

 

[r6mile]

Hello - a few years ago I set up a relative with a 2011 21.5 iMac, with a K610M. I currently have it running Big Sur, which works great. How is Sequoia likely to run?
The wiki says “Kepler works surprisingly well on Sequoia”, but what does that mean in practice?

And on a separate note, if I were to replace the stock GPU on a 27 inch 2011 iMac, what is the best choice these days? Wiki suggests a WX4130, but it’s about £100 on AliExpress which hardly seems worth it on this machine?