CPU Upgrade iMac Mid 2011

[StephN999]

It's a pleasure,

now I cross my fingers to make it work, especially with all the trouble I gave myself and the 2 motherboards that I broke by forcing like a patient on the chipset of the rom having "Test Clips Socket" too tired who was holding up badly.

 

[DeletteUA]

UPDATE. Enabled screen sharing, made sure it worked with the i5 2500S, reinstalled the Xeon and....nothing. It boots up with a black screen. I can confirm that the HDD runs and I plugged in various USB and Thunderbolt devices and they do light up.

Waited for a long time and the screen sharing never showed. Installed the i5 and the i7 and it roughly takes 3 minutes for the computer to boot and I would be able to see the iMac on my network on the MacBook. Never was the case with the Xeon installed.


BUT. The show must go on. This was a test just to see if the Xeon would work out of box, this information seems like it was already known.

Steph999 and Sportler. I am extremely new into using microcodes and using a CH341a programmer, essentially I would need a step by step guide on what to do. I've seen a little bit of Nick's post in the iMac GPU thread about using the programmer and microcodes and stuff but other than I am willing to be a remote guinea pig to see if would get the 2011 iMacs to Ivy bridge.

In short, let's start from the beginning. I know where to flash the EEPROM of the motherboard (I believe Nick's post said it was near the wifi/bluetooth card). Where do I go from there? And what programs do I need to obtain the information of the chip? I would also need to know how to backup and change microcodes.

I believe if we work together, we can make Ivy bridge work on our Mac's.

is video card is available in HW report? because you have integrated video card in the i5, xeon - does not have it

 

[SamuraiLegion]

is video card is available in HW report? because you have integrated video card in the i5, xeon - does not have it

UPDATE. YES. The video card was listed in the HW and Device manager.

I installed the WX7100 (00_D model), tried open core and eventually got the GPU working on macOS and Windows (flashes it on Windows). This was all done on i7. Updated Windows and tried updating to Catalina on a different partition.

While the update was happing for Catalina (used the patch and disabled auto post-patches), the internal display never turns on anymore. Tried the old GPU...nothing. My internal display never turns on anymore and I’m not sure what to do, so I ordered a replacement of the logic board. Using screen sharing and TeamViewer, the WX7100 never is listed at all in the HW report or device manager.

HOWEVER, when I plug in the WX7100 and the intel XEON I was able to get into team viewer! Unfortunately since I am unable to use the WX7100 and the original 6770 is not showing any internal display, the team viewer just shows a black screen (maybe due to no iGPU support on the Xeon’s).

MLB (logic board) comes in Saturday. Will continue testing there.

P.S the CH341a “black edition’s” clips SUCK. It would not clip on the EEPROM of the motherboard or the WX7100. So, I was unable to change the microcode for now.
I also ordered a better clip for that.

 

[StephN999]

Bonjour,

I did not understand everything 😓, but concerning your display problem with your new graphics card try to see on the dedicated topic, you may have missed something.

Uh if not hear (uh sorry read 😂) that your system boots with the Xeon without having to change the microcode I am super surprised there! 😊

the absence of IGPU does not prevent the display with software like Teamviewer or Remote Desktop by cons, I already had black screens and the system which boot, but I had the display on another machine , by the way we didn't even see the graphics card in about this mac.

I have the same CH341a “black edition’s” and I still confirm that the clip is really bad.🤬 I'll take the clip I'm talking about on post 43.

Edit: short, already see how to solve the problem of the graphics card and we can talk about the CPU after I think.

 

[SamuraiLegion]

Bonjour,

I did not understand everything 😓, but concerning your display problem with your new graphics card try to see on the dedicated topic, you may have missed something.

Uh if not hear (uh sorry read 😂) that your system boots with the Xeon without having to change the microcode I am super surprised there! 😊

the absence of IGPU does not prevent the display with software like Teamviewer or Remote Desktop by cons, I already had black screens and the system which boot, but I had the display on another machine , by the way we didn't even see the graphics card in about this mac.

I have the same CH341a “black edition’s” and I still confirm that the clip is really bad.🤬 I'll take the clip I'm talking about on post 43.

Edit: short, already see how to solve the problem of the graphics card and we can talk about the CPU after I think.

I will look through the thread again and retrace my steps. Ahhhh, PLIERS, I did not think of that! That is a game a changer. I believe my main system EEROM may be corrupt or the PRAM is empty, I have no clue but is there a way I can get the original BIOS or EFI ROM of the iMac 2011?

 

[StephN999]

Re,

If you have not reprogrammed your EFI rom no reason for it to be corrupted, then the system would absolutely not start without it.

Not impossible that you had another breakdown that said...

And no we do not find an EFI Rom on our machine since it contains the identity of your machine (among other things the unique serial number), if for example I had 2 Macs with the same rom I would have conflicts with iCloud I think.

 

[Pacific1972]

Are people here speak about Xeon without Intel Graphics and too much TDP
or problems with Nvidia Quadro video card ? Hopefully there are not more than
one problem to solve here...

If exchanging the original 21.5" 2011 iMac CPU i5-2400S (1155) with TDP of 65W
you only can put in another 1155 CPU with Intel Graphics and a TDP of 65W or lower,
not higher - because you only have the original APPLE Power Supply Unit.

Perhaps you have a look at Xeon E3-1265L with TDP 45W (2.5Ghz) - Boost 3.5Ghz
and exchange CPU first. Then you can patch Nvidia K2100M MXM Video card with
Windows and external CH341A BIOS Programmer (if not made).

If you have Nicks DvB VBIOS already installed, use under

High Sierra modified "AppleGraphicsControl.KEXT" with KextDrop APP
(you can find this in this forum: iMac / 2011 iMac Graphics card upgrade)

and if to make a clean install with dosdudes Mojave Patcher or Catalina Patcher,
you can use after second USB Stick boot recommended Attributes for your machine,
but DISABLE Legacy Graphics Support (if you have a 3rd party NVIDIA Quadro card,
otherwise the Drivers are for supporting AMD cards on Mojave or Catalina)...

Your kernel panics / unexpected reactions of your iMac have something to do with
TDP of the CPU - no modified system files - wrong Mojave / Catalina Attributes.

P.S. sometimes I have had problems with deep sleep mode and 2 or more bootable
SSDs or partitions (macOS / BootCamp) - modify system is recommended...

For EFI ROM Reset you don't need a CH341A BIOS Programmer, if your EFI BIOS
was corrupted, do you have a new ROM file ?

CMD-ALT-P-R

(With forgotten EFI BIOS Password try to take out one RAM Module, press
CMD-ALT-P-R and let the iMac Start tone come 3x, then let macOS boot).

 

[SamuraiLegion]

Are people here speak about Xeon without Intel Graphics and too much TDP
or problems with Nvidia Quadro video card ? Hopefully there are not more than
one problem to solve here...

If exchanging the original 21.5" 2011 iMac CPU i5-2400S (1155) with TDP of 65W
you only can put in another 1155 CPU with Intel Graphics and a TDP of 65W or lower,
not higher - because you only have the original APPLE Power Supply Unit.

Perhaps you have a look at Xeon E3-1265L with TDP 45W (2.5Ghz) - Boost 3.5Ghz
and exchange CPU first. Then you can patch Nvidia K2100M MXM Video card with
Windows and external CH341A BIOS Programmer (if not made).

If you have Nicks DvB VBIOS already installed, use under

High Sierra modified "AppleGraphicsControl.KEXT" with KextDrop APP
(you can find this in this forum: iMac / 2011 iMac Graphics card upgrade)

and if to make a clean install with dosdudes Mojave Patcher or Catalina Patcher,
you can use after second USB Stick boot recommended Attributes for your machine,
but DISABLE Legacy Graphics Support (if you have a 3rd party NVIDIA Quadro card,
otherwise the Drivers are for supporting AMD cards on Mojave or Catalina)...

Your kernel panics / unexpected reactions of your iMac have something to do with
TDP of the CPU - no modified system files - wrong Mojave / Catalina Attributes.

P.S. sometimes I have had problems with deep sleep mode and 2 or more bootable
SSDs or partitions (macOS / BootCamp) - modify system is recommended...

For EFI ROM Reset you don't need a CH341A BIOS Programmer, if your EFI BIOS
was corrupted, do you have a new ROM file ?

CMD-ALT-P-R

(With forgotten EFI BIOS Password try to take out one RAM Module, press
CMD-ALT-P-R and let the iMac Start tone come 3x, then let macOS boot).

I currently possess the Intel Xeon E3-1270v2 (Ivy Bridge) with a AMD WX7100. My computer is an iMac 27inch mid 2011 with a 3-pipe heatsink. The Xeon is currently listed as drawing a TDP of 69 watts (link)That's only 4 extra total watts added from your minimum suggestion. Perhaps, if I unplug the DVD drive, would that suffice for the extra wattage?

Also, I do not have a new ROM file at all. I am not sure if my EFI BIOS is corrupted. I just now know that neither of my GPU's (WX7100 and the original 6770M) are no longer detected (LED #1 and #2 stay on, #3 and #4 are off). Is there a way to obtain a new EFI BIOS Rom?

 

[StephN999]

Are people here speak about Xeon without Intel Graphics and too much TDP
or problems with Nvidia Quadro video card ? Hopefully there are not more than
one problem to solve here...

Bonjour, 😊

I did not see a message in this sense , moreover I already said it, my Xeon does not exceed 55 Watt while it is given for 80 Watt and here we are talking about maximum, in basic use the consumption is "ridiculous". 😃

See my message here.

As far as hibernation is concerned, it is still relevant. 😓

AMD WX7100 (recognized as Radeon RX 580 in macOS)
It is important to identify the card. This card has been unpredictable. @Nick [D]vB has obviously a working card with number 109-C95847-00C_02. @Pascal Baillargeau has a card working with number 109-C95847-00D_02. However, other users have not been successful with the same exact models. For example, @Vego17 recently got the same card as @Nick [D]vB. But his card did not work in his iMac 2011 while it does run normally in a Dell Precision 7710 laptop.

Bonjour, SamuraiLegion

I quoted you part of the 1st post of the topic talking about changing graphics cards on our machines, I think that's the problem, but again, I can not be 100% sure.

 

[DeletteUA]

You should try this:
If you have Nicks DvB VBIOS already installed, use under

High Sierra modified "AppleGraphicsControl.KEXT" with KextDrop APP
(you can find this in this forum: iMac / 2011 iMac Graphics card upgrade)

and if to make a clean install with dosdudes Mojave Patcher or Catalina Patcher,
you can use after second USB Stick boot recommended Attributes for your machine,
but DISABLE Legacy Graphics Support (if you have a 3rd party NVIDIA Quadro card,
otherwise the Drivers are for supporting AMD cards on Mojave or Catalina)...


there is two steps as for me:

1. make shure that gpu is working with the old processor that was in stock with your mac(or maybe some 100% compatible cpu)
2. Replace the cpu and check if it works or not

 

[Pacific1972]

I've already (but with original CPU 27" Core i5 3.1Ghz) some starting problems with my
Quadro K2000M. I'm thinking about to take the CR2032 battery from the mainboard -
if I take out the power plug for 1/2 hour, the machine starts with standard EFI settings.
without black screen...

But I don't think about corrupted BIOS, and a CPU exchange from real Quadcore i5
3.1Ghz to Core i7 or Xeon it not to be worth...
[automerge]1594990432[/automerge]

Bonjour, 😊

I did not see a message in this sense , moreover I already said it, my Xeon does not exceed 55 Watt while it is given for 80 Watt and here we are talking about maximum, in basic use the consumption is "ridiculous". 😃

See my message here.

As far as hibernation is concerned, it is still relevant. 😓


Bonjour, SamuraiLegion

I quoted you part of the 1st post of the topic talking about changing graphics cards on our machines, I think that's the problem, but again, I can not be 100% sure.

ATTN: SamuraiLegion

Perhaps you have a look at your CPU together with WX7100 - your Video card
has a TDP with a maximum of 130W and you can't exchange iMacs PSU !

I wouldn't take this piece of hardware into an 27" iMac and .... No, no way !!!

AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 Mobile Specs

AMD Ellesmere, 1243 MHz, 2304 Cores, 144 TMUs, 32 ROPs, 8192 MB GDDR5, 1250 MHz, 256 bit

www.techpowerup.com

As same as for EGPU you need for such a Graphics card another PSU - and that is
why the IMac PSU limited the possibilities of CPU & internal GPU...

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Perhaps you have a look at your CPU together with WX7100 - your Video card
has a TDP with a maximum of 130W and you can't exchange iMacs PSU !

I wouldn't take this piece of hardware into an 27" iMac and .... No, no way !!!

Probably you know one can modify the vBIOS to use more ore less power. The versions @Nick [D]vB made and posted are limited to approximately 65W. Just read the thread you know so well. This is true for all the available GTX7XX, K4100M, and WX7100 BIOS versions linked from the first page.

 

[Pacific1972]

Probably you know one can modify the vBIOS to use more ore less power. The versions @Nick [D]vB made and posted are limited to approximately 65W. Just read the thread you know so well. This is true for all the available GTX7XX, K4100M, and WX7100 BIOS versions linked from the first page.

👍👍 no solution without pain 👍👍 take the PSU to the limit 👍👍 its just a 2011 iMac
...hopefully the experimental users have enough money for the new Apple Silicon

😄 😄 😄 ...statement from an electrican engineer 😄 😄 😄
...and of course I don't need to heat my room, my IMac is my heating in winter, too !!!

🤪 🤪 🤪

 

[Ausdauersportler]

👍👍 no solution without pain 👍👍 take the PSU to the limit 👍👍 its just a 2011 iMac
...hopefully the experimental users have enough money for the new Apple Silicon

😄 😄 😄 ...statement from an electrican engineer 😄 😄 😄
...and of course I don't need to heat my room, my IMac is my heating in winter, too !!!

🤪 🤪 🤪

The original ATI 6970M draws exactly the same 70W max. The only issue I see is that the fans never were really adjusted to get the heat away. You do not overrun the PSU with that unless you play 24/7 video games or run Valley benchmarks. And even then the outgoing heat will be the problem, not the PSU delivering the incoming ...

 

[StephN999]

Bonsoir,

My French translated into English by Google Translate must be really bad, what I said is much more logical than these stories of "Watt". 😓

I do not know if you know the manufacturing processes of microprocessor or GPU, but a CPU or a GPU of the same range will never be equal in terms of "Watt" suddenly some may be overclocked and no other. well then the "watt" is a false friend. consumption (intensity) is in amperes.

Edit: It also explains very well why in part my CPU does not exceed 55W in maximum use.


This is why in Watt we speak of nominal power.

I specify that I am not an expert in this field, so take it to the imperative (in the sense advice).

Correct me by the way if I am wrong!

 

[Ausdauersportler]

No, energy consumption is measured in Watts. You energy bill is calculated in Watts.

Talking about DC:
The voltage [V] is the ability to do work electron by electron, the current in amps [A] is the number of electrons per time. So the work (in watts [V*A]) you can get out if a wire can be maxed out by providing a higher voltage or a higher current or both.

There are (physical) limits to the "energy" path you have, some cannot survive higher currents, some cannot take a higher voltage and all at the very end are limited in both aspects.

The CPUs are build for more than two decades following narrow bands of TDP (the GPU, too) just because system manufacturing companies need to know how much power they have to feed in and how to get the same power in form of heat out of the box in the same time avoiding overheating...

So power is the term which is interesting...

Watt — Wikipédia

fr.wikipedia.org

 

[StephN999]

Bonsoir,

I was not sure thank you for putting me back on the right track. 😓 😊 😅

The problem is not for me related to that.

 

[Pacific1972]

I only think about the peak levels, not the idle status...

 

[SamuraiLegion]

Bonjour, 😊

I did not see a message in this sense , moreover I already said it, my Xeon does not exceed 55 Watt while it is given for 80 Watt and here we are talking about maximum, in basic use the consumption is "ridiculous". 😃

See my message here.

As far as hibernation is concerned, it is still relevant. 😓


Bonjour, SamuraiLegion

I quoted you part of the 1st post of the topic talking about changing graphics cards on our machines, I think that's the problem, but again, I can not be 100% sure.

This card worked, though. Here’s some proof:

I believe I messed up a cable or something. Now no GPU’s are recognized. This is bad timing, because the macOS and the Windows side were recognizing the Xeon CPU.
[automerge]1595027563[/automerge]

You should try this:
If you have Nicks DvB VBIOS already installed, use under

High Sierra modified "AppleGraphicsControl.KEXT" with KextDrop APP
(you can find this in this forum: iMac / 2011 iMac Graphics card upgrade)

and if to make a clean install with dosdudes Mojave Patcher or Catalina Patcher,
you can use after second USB Stick boot recommended Attributes for your machine,
but DISABLE Legacy Graphics Support (if you have a 3rd party NVIDIA Quadro card,
otherwise the Drivers are for supporting AMD cards on Mojave or Catalina)...


there is two steps as for me:

1. make shure that gpu is working with the old processor that was in stock with your mac(or maybe some 100% compatible cpu)
2. Replace the cpu and check if it works or not

Ok. I wiped my old SSD. Got a clean fresh High Sierra. I just need to add the the modified AppleGraphics.kext using another a computer? (can not boot into anything on the iMac) and then switch the i7 2600 with the old i5 2500S stock CPU?


Lastly, before the installation of the Catalina patch, there’s only a way to disable ALL of the patch but how do I disable just the legacy video support? Do I have to let the installation run then disable the legacy patch or is there away to do it before the installation?
Also, also. Could I do all of this with another Mac and then plug the SSD into the iMac so I can be ready to go?

Apologies for the all the questions. As you can see, I am very inexperienced in this but I am learning quickly.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

This card worked, though. Here’s some proof: View attachment 934860View attachment 934861

I believe I messed up a cable or something. Now no GPU’s are recognized. This is bad timing, because the macOS and the Windows side were recognizing the Xeon CPU.
[automerge]1595027563[/automerge]

Ok. I wiped my old SSD. Got a clean fresh High Sierra. I just need to add the the modified AppleGraphics.kext using another a computer? (can not boot into anything on the iMac) and then switch the i7 2600 with the old i5 2500S stock CPU?


Lastly, before the installation of the Catalina patch, there’s only a way to disable ALL of the patch but how do I disable just the legacy video support? Do I have to let the installation run then disable the legacy patch or is there away to do it before the installation?
Also, also. Could I do all of this with another Mac and then plug the SSD into the iMac so I can be ready to go?

Apologies for the all the questions. As you can see, I am very inexperienced in this but I am learning quickly.

Only this time:
Using the @dosdude1 patcher is explained in detail on the site where you got it. There is a video and a bunch of guides, both for quick learners!

My dear: You did this XEON boot rom mod before upgrading to the latest firmware Apple provided for this iMac. What to you expect to happen when firmware upgrades with MacOS upgrades come in? 87.0.0.0.0 is the latest, when having this installed you can do all the mods you like, including XEON and EG mods for native boot screen - if you need this.

EDIT: Adding an external display helps to overcome the black screen issue with the latest High Sierra!

 

[roscho]

Owning a 27" imac with Core i7-2600, I bought a Xeon E3-1290 recently.
Yes I know that performance increase might be marginal though. Its just for fun...

My holidays started yesterday , so I was sufficiently curious and relaxed to mess around with my imac again.

I replaced the i7-2600 today with the Xeon, and what can I say, it runs without any problems (with OC due to WX7100).
Unfortunately, Geekbench and Valley performance dropped by roughly 10%.

Here are the pics:

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Owning a 27" imac with Core i7-2600, I bought a Xeon E3-1290 recently.
Yes I know that performance increase might be marginal though. Its just for fun...

My holidays started yesterday , so I was sufficiently curious and relaxed to mess around with my imac again.

I replaced the i7-2600 today with the Xeon, and what can I say, it runs without any problems (with OC due to WX7100).
Unfortunately, Geekbench and Valley performance dropped by roughly 10%.

Here are the pics:
View attachment 935268
View attachment 935269

This is interesting. Did you install the sleep kext on disk in SLE? I still do not know is some apps can use the iGPU even with the AMD offering more sophisticated hardware support. The XEON has no iGPU.
Have you installed or injected the PolarisBoost extension?

 

[StephN999]

Whoa!!!😃
roscho, my machine is around 2600 (when I have no problems, because I have more regularly 1300 )

Your "marginal" makes me die of laughter suddenly. 😂 😂 😂

Edit: I can't imagine the score of an iMac pro or iMac 2019 (and I'm not talking about the latest Mac pro) suddenly, I do not realize.

Edit2: I have the answer:

AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo

97189

 

[roscho]

This is interesting. Did you install the sleep kext on disk in SLE? I still do not know is some apps can use the iGPU even with the AMD offering more sophisticated hardware support. The XEON has no iGPU.
Have you installed or injected the PolarisBoost extension?

sleep is actually broken for me as expected for a quick ‚plug and play‘.

Didn‘t use polarisboost yet with the xeon but maybe i‘ll try this evening - anyway i‘m sceptical as CMMChris PTPL is intended for desktop 580s not for mobile wx7100, though.

Whoa!!!😃
roscho, my machine is around 2600 (when I have no problems, because I have more regularly 1300 )

Desolée, j‘ai pas complêtement compris ta reponse, peut-être à cause de google translate...

Which benchmark do you mean with 2600 - valley? In valley i never reached >2000 on mac os, only on linux. Usually i get roughly 1200, with the Xeon (n=1) only 1000...which sucks

 

[StephN999]

Re,
je m'en doutais bien que les trads était limite...

J'ai 2600 avec ma Quadro K2100M avec le Metal test de GeekBench (elle est à 2398 Max sur Metal GeekBench) quand ça déconne pas, j'ai pas trouvé de solution malgré mes changements de Kexts.

I suspected that the translations were limited...

I have 2600 with my Quadro K2100M with the Metal test of GeekBench (it is at 2398 Max on Metal GeekBench) when it's not kidding, I haven't found a solution despite my changes of Kexts.


Je crois que je vais reprendre des cours d'Anglais c'est un peu chiant les traductions à l'arrache.
A 43 ans il n'est pas trop tard.

I think I'm going to resume English lessons it's a bit annoying translations to the tears.
At 43 it's not too late.