CPU Upgrade iMac Mid 2011

[Ausdauersportler]

Other that that, the integrated GPU is not used at all anywhere within MacOS. So "rarely" is the wrong term. There isn't a requirement for integrated GPU on this iMac, it simply happened to be there in the Intel 2nd generation chips.

This is simply not true. It serves for H.264 acceleration which is used by quite a lot apps...you might not use those. But the does not mean the iGPU is not used at all...

 

[USB3foriMac]

This is simply not true. It serves for H.264 acceleration which is used by quite a lot apps...you might not use those. But the does not mean the iGPU is not used at all...

Thank you, I corrected my earlier post.
This is excellent information. I have not read about this earlier. Does this maybe point to the problem that exists with Xeons? Are Xeons identical in that aspect?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thank you, I corrected my earlier post.
This is excellent information. I have not read about this earlier. Does this maybe point to the problem that exists with Xeons? Are Xeons identical in that aspect?

Mojave and Catalina do no support the Sandy Bridge iGPU and to get it working you have to reinstall the High Sierra AppleGVA.framwork.

If the" iGPU less" Xeon CPU and the sleep problems would be caused by this AppleGVA.framework simply do not install it on Catalina or Mojave (just the HD3000 as mentioned on the GPU thread) and check yourself. High Sierra will expect on the 12,x an iGPU installed.

 

[StephN999]

Hello,

Updating the original firmware just for testing:
IME from 7.0.0.1193 to 7.1.80.1214
CPUID 206A3 to the latest version (the other MicroCodes are up to date).

Test tomorrow.

 

[Lady Titan]

Hello,

Updating the original firmware just for testing:
IME from 7.0.0.1193 to 7.1.80.1214
CPUID 206A3 to the latest version (the other MicroCodes are up to date).

Test tomorrow.

thank you very much! for not giving it up! this will help a lot! we are looking forward to the tests! thank you!

 

[StephN999]

Bonjour,

Thanks for your support 😊, yesterday I tested the IME 8.0.4.1441 of the iMac 2012 (With my Xeon Sandy Bridge CPU), it seems to start (with a beep like in an official firmware update), no graphic card to help, but a priori no network at all, (tested with several blind systems).

I'll have to wait until I get a new graphic card to go further.

Too bad I don't have a real expert to help me, I'm at the end of the possible tests, it's frustrating.

I might have to change the eeprom by an extractable one because by dint of testing I might break the soldering (I broke 2 motherboards like that), if I can be informed about it!

Bonne journée.

 

[StephN999]

Bonjour,

After testing 4 different IMEs, the one for the iMac 2012, the last 8, the last 7 and the last 7 "SLIM", this one works, more than I have to test with my new graphics card to confirm (just tested the boot with the Linux flash drive).

Have a nice day.

 

[Rendell001]

After testing 4 different IMEs, the one for the iMac 2012, the last 8, the last 7 and the last 7 "SLIM", this one works, more than I have to test with my new graphics card to confirm (just tested the boot with the Linux flash drive).

Have a nice day.

Okay, I know I'm no expert but... that sounded pretty positive to me!

 

[StephN999]

Bonjour,

Thanks for your support, in my opinion the best way forward would be to boot the machine with a version of IME 8 (still with a Sandy Bridge processor), but there is no "Slim" version of the latter and I think it's important because from what I understand, the boot phase (Pre-boot?) has to be short on our machines.

I don't know if I specified it but the 2011 iMacs have a Z68 chipset compatible with Ivy Bridge processors.

Have a nice day.

 

[MirComputers]

Hey all,

i upgrade my iMac 2011 to an Xeon E3-1290 3,6GHz, the fastest Sandybridge CPU. Its cool and running very stable. I can really recommend this all who wants to max this out. The iGPU of the Sandybridge is rarly used in the software so its not really used. The CPU get reconised as an i5.

Not sure about HS, but on Catalina with metal GPU k2100m, without patched sandy bridge kexts most video editing app would crash or render wrong and be painfully slow.

 

[Firmez]

So sleep does not work, right? Anything else that does not work, apart from the wrong CPU detection?
Can you run Cinebench, see how that goes?

It was assumed that the sleep problem is related to the non-existing integrated GPU, which apparently is not as Xeons with iGPU also showed the sleep problem.
Edit: Other that that, the integrated GPU is not used at all anywhere within MacOS. So "rarely" is the wrong term. There isn't a requirement for integrated GPU on this iMac, it simply happened to be there in the Intel 2nd generation chips. Incorrect, see post 251.

Ok was Running Cinebench. Hope this helps. Yes sleep is broken, but this issue i had too with the i7-2700k. But it was a bit strange with the 2700. The system felt a bit slower vs the i7-2600k to me. Anyway sleep isnt so important to me. The machine works fine. Would be glad to move to the i7-3770K if this would possible today.

 

[USB3foriMac]

Ok was Running Cinebench. Hope this helps

Thanks.
So the E3 1290 is slightly faster due to higher core clock, no surprises here. Here's the i7 again:

As they are close, both in price and performance, it probably depends on whether you value sleep. The power dissipation in non-sleep state (display off) is around 42W, whereas sleeping it is only 1.3W:

If it is in non-sleep (display off) for 24 hours, compared to 24 hours sleep, your power consumption will be approx. 1 kWh higher (per day). If you use it 8 hours a day and have 16 hours non-sleep, you use 240kWh more each year.
So make sure you switch it off after use, or you pay dearly for the (slightly) lower price of the Xeon.

 

[JR9162]

Bonjour,
Many, many hours of research, a lot of tests of all kinds but I have not solved the problem of deep sleep.

I found and adapted a tutorial to change the type of microprocessor suddenly my system can see a Quad-Core Intel Xeon (On clover 0x05A5 "Hexadecimal", On OpenCore 1445 "Decimal)".

Informations matériel :

  Nom du modèle :    iMac
  Identifiant du modèle :    iMac12,1
  Nom du processeur :    Quad-Core Intel Xeon
  Vitesse du processeur :    3,4 GHz
  Nombre de processeurs :    1
  Nombre total de cœurs :    4
  Cache de niveau 2 (par cœur) :    256 Ko
  Cache de niveau 3 :    8 Mo
  Technologie Hyper-Threading :    Activé
  Mémoire :    16 Go
  Version de la ROM de démarrage :    87.0.0.0.0

View attachment 913089

Stephanie, I am going to install a Xeon E3-1275 CPU in my mid2011 21.5" iMac. It is running MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6, 2.7 ghz Intel core i5 processor. The graphics are currently AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512 mb.

What did you do to get the OS to recognize your CPU as a Xeon rather than the Intel i5? Is such a simple hack? And will the OS still recognize and correcly report an Intel i5 or Intel core i7-2600S CPU?

My 1 tb HDD will be replaced by a 1 tb Samsung SSD, the GPU will be a Nvidia Geforce GTX 770M 3GB MXM with VBIOS flashed like you did.

I already upgraded the RAM to 32 gb DDR3 1333 mhz DIMMS.

Thanks! John

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Stephanie, I am going to install a Xeon E3-1275 CPU in my mid2011 21.5" iMac. It is running MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6, 2.7 ghz Intel core i5 processor. The graphics are currently AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512 mb.

What did you do to get the OS to recognize your CPU as a Xeon rather than the Intel i5? Is such a simple hack? And will the OS still recognize and correcly report an Intel i5 or Intel core i7-2600S CPU?

My 1 tb HDD will be replaced by a 1 tb Samsung SSD, the GPU will be a Nvidia Geforce GTX 770M 3GB MXM with VBIOS flashed like you did.

I already upgraded the RAM to 32 gb DDR3 1333 mhz DIMMS.

Thanks! John

The 770 within the 21.5 will make it most likely unstable (power draw on load). Replace the SATA data cable on the way (always known to be source of trouble after a decade), you may even install two SDD since the 2011 has two SATA ports and a DVD port using a new SATA data cable and a SATA power splitter cable and a 3.5->2.5 conversion frame.

I would not go the XEON route. Sleep will be broken and the gain in computing power is less then you thing. Stick with the 2600S or go to the 2600S if you already willing to spend so much money into this small machine.

Personally I would recommend to get an cheap GPU dead 27“ iMac 2011 and put GPU, SSD, memory, and i7-2600 into it.

 

[StephN999]

Bonjour,

@JR9162,

With OpenCore configurator, I just ticked UpdateNVRAM and UpdateSMBIOS in PlatformInfo, if you don't use OpenCore, I don't remember but on a hackintosh tutorial you found a solution.

Ps: Writing without translator for the first time. 😅

 

[StephN999]

I tested the IME 8.0.4.1441 of the iMac 2012 (With my Xeon Sandy Bridge CPU), it seems to start (with a beep like in an official firmware update), no graphic card to help, but a priori no network at all, (tested with several blind systems).

Bonjour,

Today, my network card still doesn't work, I wonder if it has something to do with it.

 

[StephN999]

Hello,

Since I moved to Big Sur, I have my Xeon E3-1270 which remains blocked at 1.6Ghz, an idea?

CineBench Capture:

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Yes, one of your thermo sensors to the logic board is broken or has not been reconnected properly. This prohibits boosting of the CPU....

 

[StephN999]

Thank you for the explanation.

I think it's the motherboard when I broke my power supply I made contact with the CPU heatsink, that explains the over ventilation, the ethernet card is down and I also have the ODD sensor which is uncontrollable, that's a lot for simple coincidence or I disassembled everything in doubt, strictly no cabling problems.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

SMC reset and three PRAM resets in a row, if the system does not come back to normal behaviour the hardware will be likely broken. Do this with only one memory module installed to rule out other problems.

Currently I have a small battle with another guy not accepting than remote hardware repair is impossible

 

[StephN999]

Thank you I'll try,
I hadn't thought of leaving only a memory bar, if it helps!!!!

 

[Ausdauersportler]

A single memory just because you can exclude broken memory this way more easy. KISS (keep it simple stupid)

 

[Terros]

Know it may not be the place but not sure if a similar thread exists for the 2009 iSeries CPU's - Does anyone know if the Xeon series works in these iMac's?

Like a Xeon X5650 and so on?

 

[StephN999]

Bonjour,

@Terros> No idea, we can always change the title and put iMac 2009 to 2011 as the topic of the graphic cards.


@Ausdauersportler> I've done several times the "manipulations" without success, it's not extremely serious, but I would see to change my motherboard one more time, but without hurrying this time.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Know it may not be the place but not sure if a similar thread exists for the 2009 iSeries CPU's - Does anyone know if the Xeon series works in these iMac's?

Like a Xeon X5650 and so on?

Most importantly is has to fit in this LGA1156 socket which is this line of CPU:

Products formerly Lynnfield

Products formerly Lynnfield product listing with links to detailed product features and specifications.

ark.intel.com

The L3426 is known to run in the 21.5" iMac 2010 fully compatible. My Dad has such an iMac with a small K1100M running Catalina and Big Sur next month....