iM 4,1-14,4 iMac 2011 Maxwell and Pascal GPU upgrade

[Cloud9]

It mostly depends on you budget. A few posts above you can see benchmark performance of several cards.
The M4000M is currently the best value/performance card, easily found and at around €100 it offers good performance even on a lot of modern games. The P3000 is roughly twice the price and ~40% performance boost, I've used it to play Witcher 3 in high settings and looked great at 45 to 60 fps.

For the P4000 no overclocked vbios is available (I don't have one to test), so performance increase over the overclocked P3000 may not justify price difference.

I'm currently working on a GTX1070 iMac vbios which should score above 5000 on 3DMark Time Spy, but cost of the card is above €400, way more than you'd pay for the whole iMac 2011.

Also, take into account that Pascal cards need a hardware programmer (ch341a with 1.8v capability) to flash vbios, or a seller that will program it for you.

Guess I'll have to write an iMac 2011 windows gaming thread on it own

I almost bought a 1070 on ebay last night for under $400.00. I actually lost at the last second with a bid $365.00. I wasn't trying hard since there isn't a vbios at present out yet. Now I am kicking myself because they go for $500.00

I nixed the idea of just getting a m1 mini. I already have one for work. I don't think I want to explore parralells gaming. If the main usage is a gaming machine then I should be comparing sunk cost to a used pc plus video card for gaming.

Now I might drop the $500 for a 1070....

 

[m0bil]

I almost bought a 1070 on ebay last night for under $400.00. I actually lost at the last second with a bid $365.00. I wasn't trying hard since there isn't a vbios at present out yet. Now I am kicking myself because they go for $500.00

I nixed the idea of just getting a m1 mini. I already have one for work. I don't think I want to explore parralells gaming. If the main usage is a gaming machine then I should be comparing sunk cost to a used pc plus video card for gaming.

Now I might drop the $500 for a 1070....

Be careful with bidding for a MXM GTX 1070, there are many different models of this card (with over 140 different vbios versions available on techpowerup!) and I'm just developing iMac vbios for one of them. There are G-Sync and non G-Sync versions incompatible between each other and there are even some models that had a hardware design problem.
I'll post full details once I release vbios (hopefully within one week, I'm working on some power issues as card tends to overheat a bit), but in short you'd be looking for a card with Vendor/Device ID 10DE:1BA1, standard MXM factor that looks like this:

 

[m0bil]

The thread is an very good Idea!

Budget is no matter, I need at fist a good iMac who is under 100€ an tear it down for customizing the Apple Logo and some other ideas.

I buy the P3000^^
What is with the P5000?

When do you start the Thread for Gaming?

Thanks^^

The P5000 would be roughly the Quadro equivalent to the GeForce GTX 1070, but with 16GB ram instead of 8GB. Quite expensive and should be a top performer, but no iMac vbios is available yet as no developer had one to test.

Yep, I think I'll start an iMac 2011 windows gaming thread when I finish the GTX1070 vbios mod, as there seems to be increasing interest on it and should also help keep this thread and the main GPU upgrade thread cleaner.

 

[JohnPascololo]

Be careful with bidding for a MXM GTX 1070, there are many different models of this card (with over 140 different vbios versions available on techpowerup!) and I'm just developing iMac vbios for one of them. There are G-Sync and non G-Sync versions incompatible between each other and there are even some models that had a hardware design problem.
I'll post full details once I release vbios (hopefully within one week, I'm working on some power issues as card tends to overheat a bit), but in short you'd be looking for a card with Vendor/Device ID 10DE:1BA1, standard MXM factor that looks like this:

that is crazy!

 

[JohnPascololo]

i wonder if it is possible to keep it cool with the the 3 pipe heatsink

 

[Cloud9]

Just ordered one that looks like that off of ebay. Supposedly brand new/open box. Going to have to lean on ebay if it doesn't pan out. Luckily it was listed as both a 1070 and 1070ti....

 

[m0bil]

Made a first batch of benchmarks on the GTX1070 with internal screen enabled, standard 115W vbios clocking/power and ODD fan at max 2500 rpm.

Results look good, card performs as expected and stays slightly below 70ºC on benchmarks.

Also did a couple of hours of real gaming with Witcher 3 at native 2560x1440 and high settings. Game looks absolutely great on the internal screen and runs most of the time at 60fps, but GPU temp goes up to 80ºC. Will do more testing with higher fan speed and maybe try some clock/power tuning to see if it makes a difference.

 

[Cloud9]

My 1070 arrived today! I also have the eeprom flasher.

After thinking about it for a while I might be entirely ok with only running windows.

If that is the case do I have to have a vbios? Is the process a lot simpler if I skip osx? I assume it probably is.

I am absolutely ok to wait patiently for one and I also understand if one isn't posted here that its my problem and no one elses for buying a card that isn't yet supported by the community.

Edit: Reread the first and second post. Looks like I still need the vbios but I don't have to mess with anything else I think.

 

[m0bil]

My 1070 arrived today! I also have the eeprom flasher.

After thinking about it for a while I might be entirely ok with only running windows.

If that is the case do I have to have a vbios? Is the process a lot simpler if I skip osx? I assume it probably is.

I am absolutely ok to wait patiently for one and I also understand if one isn't posted here that its my problem and no one elses for buying a card that isn't yet supported by the community.

Edit: Reread the first and second post. Looks like I still need the vbios but I don't have to mess with anything else I think.

Yes, you'll need a vbios to enable the internal screen. Some card models can enable internal screen when windows loads Nvidia drivers, but that's not the case with the 1070 as I've not found a vbios that enables it (and I've tested over 70 vbios from Techpowerup). Not easier if you skip osx.

To install the card you'll have to use the 3 pipe heatsink and grind it properly.

Make sure your eeprom flasher is set to 1.8V. You can test and try to read eeprom from your card to gain confidence with programmer software and clip. If you do so, post eeprom you read here to check what version and device ID your card is.

You can try to install UEFI Windows 10 and/or High Sierra (with Nvidia web drivers) in advance, with remote access enabled. If you have a working opencore OCLP boot device you can probably have an emulated boot screen on the external mini DP (the one closest to the USB ports) even with you current vbios. Procedure is the same as with AMD cards on the main GPU thread, but use the configs from this thread. Even if you don't have OCLP boot device, most probably card will work on the external mini DP when Windows loads drivers.

It will just take me a couple of days to publish the iMac GTX 1070 vbios, all the hard work is done and just needs some cosmetic adjustments and subsystem id change to ease windows driver install.

 

[Cloud9]

Yes, you'll need a vbios to enable the internal screen. Some card models can enable internal screen when windows loads Nvidia drivers, but that's not the case with the 1070 as I've not found a vbios that enables it (and I've tested over 70 vbios from Techpowerup). Not easier if you skip osx.

To install the card you'll have to use the 3 pipe heatsink and grind it properly.

Make sure your eeprom flasher is set to 1.8V. You can test and try to read eeprom from your card to gain confidence with programmer software and clip. If you do so, post eeprom you read here to check what version and device ID your card is.

You can try to install UEFI Windows 10 and/or High Sierra (with Nvidia web drivers) in advance, with remote access enabled. If you have a working opencore OCLP boot device you can probably have an emulated boot screen on the external mini DP (the one closest to the USB ports) even with you current vbios. Procedure is the same as with AMD cards on the main GPU thread, but use the configs from this thread. Even if you don't have OCLP boot device, most probably card will work on the external mini DP when Windows loads drivers.

It will just take me a couple of days to publish the iMac GTX 1070 vbios, all the hard work is done and just needs some cosmetic adjustments and subsystem id change to ease windows driver install.

Wow you are attentive! Take your time my friend.

I have lots to do in terms of dissasembly, grinding, eeprom testing, and reading.

I may have time to post what I get from the eeprom early next week. My guess is you may be quicker then me.

 

[m0bil]

One last set of benchmarks on the GTX1070, now with the vbios in its final state (will try to relase it later tonight)

Results are more in line with what I expected at the start of modding. Card performs very very good.

Also, after fully cleaning and re-mounting the card on heatsink with new thermal paste, temperatures while real gaming seem to stay on the low 70s. Have still to do more testing, but this is very good news as I was worried the iMac may not be able to dissipate all card heat.

Edit: after latest vbios updates now external screen enables 4K@60fps with just a mini DP to HDMI cable (no active adapter required) !!!

 

[m0bil]

iMac Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 rom:​

- Enables the internal display
- Enables GOP boot screen using Opencore.
- Brightness control and sleep/wake work (tested on Windows 10)

See previous post for some benchmark results with this rom.

Windows 10 will automatically recognize card and install Nvidia drivers version 456.87. You can use NVCleanstall if you wish to update to the latest GeForce drivers.
To enable brightness control on Windows you need to manually add the same registry entries as with other Nvidia cards.

Undervolting, overclocking, frequency locking and voltage-frequency curve editing is fully enabled in Afterburner.
Power Limit (%) slider unlocked in Afterburner, to decrease the Max TDP if desired.
Temperature throttle limits slightly increased.

External display is enabled and tested on the mini DP closest to USB ports. I got up to 4K@60Hz with a miniDP to HDMI passive cable.

Should work on MacOS High Sierra with Web Drivers. To enable brightness control on MacOs, follow @Santa's Little Helper guide for the P3000/P4000 cards. When internal screen is enabled on boot using Opencore, card will work on later MacOS without acceleration.

Card TDP is 115W, so 3 pipe heatsink and install with good thermal paste is a must. On my testing, iMac was able to dissipate heat properly and GPU temp was only slightly above 70ºC. Card performance is great even on demanding games at native 2560x1440 resolution.

You must use a hardware programmer to flash this rom on the eeprom chip at 1.8V (nvflash will not work, as digital signature is invalid). If your card comes with an ISSI IS25WQ040 flash chip check my notes about programming it.

Clock will go up to 1910 MHz on boost2 mode and close to 2050 MHz when overclocked. The limit to performance is 115W TDP so you'll see a lot of Pwr and vRel PerfCap throttle when card goes at that higher clock rates.
I may release a 125W TDP vbios later on (beta testers are welcome). My iMac seems to have no problem providing the extra 10W of power but, while overall performance is better, framerate seems to be not so stable due to throttle.
All testing has been done on an iMac 12,2 with i7-2600 and 12GB ram.

NOTE: There are many different hardware versions of this card, some early 2016 versions even had hardware design problems (think they were MSI 1.0 version). This rom is specific for the non G-Sync GTX 1070 with Vendor/Device ID 10DE:1BA1, standard MXM form factor that looks like this (actual picture of my card). Cards with Device ID 1BE1 are G-Sync and will not work with this rom.

Edit1 (13/02/2022): I've added a 125W and slightly higher standard clocks version of the vbios. The power and clock values are copied from some vendors vbios for the card, so should be safe. I've been using it for a couple of weeks and found no issues. Temperatures are just 2 or 3 degrees higher than the 115W and stay on the low 70s while real gaming.

 

[Cloud9]

I'm curious how much of a bottleneck the cpu is with the 1070... My guess is perhaps this is just a step over the limit of what the cpu can handle.

 

[m0bil]

I'm curious how much of a bottleneck the cpu is with the 1070... My guess is perhaps this is just a step over the limit of what the cpu can handle.

The i7-2600 is still quite a good performer. Plenty of youtube videos of people testing it on modern games with powerful video cards. On my limited testing with Witcher3 and FFVII Remake it stays at around 60% CPU use or below.
Where you'll see it struggle a bit is with some emulators like RPCS3, Bluestacks and so.

 

[Aesthetica]

Hi there

Does target display mode work under High Sierra with any of these cards?

Considering a bit of a ridiculous setup:

2 x iMac 2011 27''.

One with a K4100m for work / macOS and

Another with a Maxwell card for Windows gaming and 2nd screen for the work / macOS machine. Would it be possible?

 

[Aesthetica]

iMac Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 rom:​

- Enables the internal display
- Enables GOP boot screen using Opencore.
- Brightness control and sleep/wake work (tested on Windows 10)

See previous post for some benchmark results with this rom.

Windows 10 will automatically recognize card and install Nvidia drivers version 456.87. You can use NVCleanstall if you wish to update to the latest GeForce drivers.
To enable brightness control on Windows you need to manually add the same registry entries as with other Nvidia cards.

Undervolting, overclocking, frequency locking and voltage-frequency curve editing is fully enabled in Afterburner.
Power Limit (%) slider unlocked in Afterburner, to decrease the Max TDP if desired.
Temperature throttle limits slightly increased.

External display is enabled and tested on the mini DP closest to USB ports. I got up to 4K@60Hz with a miniDP to HDMI passive cable.

Should work on MacOS High Sierra with Web Drivers. To enable brightness control on MacOs, follow @Santa's Little Helper guide for the P3000/P4000 cards. When internal screen is enabled on boot using Opencore, card will work on later MacOS without acceleration.

Card TDP is 115W, so 3 pipe heatsink and install with good thermal paste is a must. On my testing, iMac was able to dissipate heat properly and GPU temp was only slightly above 70ºC. Card performance is great even on demanding games at native 2560x1440 resolution.

You must use a hardware programmer to flash this rom on the eeprom chip at 1.8V (nvflash will not work, as digital signature is invalid). If your card comes with a IS25WQ040 flash chip see my notes about programming it.

Clock will go up to 1910 MHz on boost2 mode and close to 2050 MHz when overclocked. The limit to performance is 115W TDP so you'll see a lot of Pwr and vRel PerfCap throttle when card goes at that higher clock rates.
I may release a 125W TDP vbios later on (beta testers are welcome). My iMac seems to have no problem providing the extra 10W of power but, while overall performance is better, framerate seems to be not so stable due to throttle.
All testing has been done on an iMac 12,2 with i7-2600 and 12GB ram.

NOTE: There are many different hardware version of this card, some early 2016 versions even had hardware design problems (think they were MSI 1.0 version). This rom is specific for the non G-Sync GTX 1070 with Vendor/Device ID 10DE:1BA1, standard MXM form factor that looks like this (actual picture of my card). Cards with Device ID 1BE1 are G-Sync and will not work with this rom.

Absolutely insane upgrade! Nice work

 

[JohnPascololo]

iMac Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 rom:​

- Enables the internal display
- Enables GOP boot screen using Opencore.
- Brightness control and sleep/wake work (tested on Windows 10)

See previous post for some benchmark results with this rom.

Windows 10 will automatically recognize card and install Nvidia drivers version 456.87. You can use NVCleanstall if you wish to update to the latest GeForce drivers.
To enable brightness control on Windows you need to manually add the same registry entries as with other Nvidia cards.

Undervolting, overclocking, frequency locking and voltage-frequency curve editing is fully enabled in Afterburner.
Power Limit (%) slider unlocked in Afterburner, to decrease the Max TDP if desired.
Temperature throttle limits slightly increased.

External display is enabled and tested on the mini DP closest to USB ports. I got up to 4K@60Hz with a miniDP to HDMI passive cable.

Should work on MacOS High Sierra with Web Drivers. To enable brightness control on MacOs, follow @Santa's Little Helper guide for the P3000/P4000 cards. When internal screen is enabled on boot using Opencore, card will work on later MacOS without acceleration.

Card TDP is 115W, so 3 pipe heatsink and install with good thermal paste is a must. On my testing, iMac was able to dissipate heat properly and GPU temp was only slightly above 70ºC. Card performance is great even on demanding games at native 2560x1440 resolution.

You must use a hardware programmer to flash this rom on the eeprom chip at 1.8V (nvflash will not work, as digital signature is invalid). If your card comes with a IS25WQ040 flash chip see my notes about programming it.

Clock will go up to 1910 MHz on boost2 mode and close to 2050 MHz when overclocked. The limit to performance is 115W TDP so you'll see a lot of Pwr and vRel PerfCap throttle when card goes at that higher clock rates.
I may release a 125W TDP vbios later on (beta testers are welcome). My iMac seems to have no problem providing the extra 10W of power but, while overall performance is better, framerate seems to be not so stable due to throttle.
All testing has been done on an iMac 12,2 with i7-2600 and 12GB ram.

NOTE: There are many different hardware version of this card, some early 2016 versions even had hardware design problems (think they were MSI 1.0 version). This rom is specific for the non G-Sync GTX 1070 with Vendor/Device ID 10DE:1BA1, standard MXM form factor that looks like this (actual picture of my card). Cards with Device ID 1BE1 are G-Sync and will not work with this rom.

Is it possible to identify this type of card by looking at the PCB?

 

[JohnPascololo]

What about Sleep/Wake? Is it working with this card? I had issues with my GTX980 which failed to wake. I guess OpenCore is still required for loading GOP driver before windows and showing boot loader?

 

[m0bil]

Is it possible to identify this type of card by looking at the PCB?

I'm not sure. Take a look at this thread to see the craziness of many models available. It does not state which models are G-Sync enabled, but looking at techpowerup vbios archive there are vbios available for g-sync and non-gsync cards for all manufacturers (Dell, MSI, Asus, Clevo...).
I choose the model that looks the most like the already working Maxwell/Pascal cards for iMac as I thought I'd have higher chances of success. Also, g-sync does not make sense on our iMacs.

I have tried flashing gsync vbios (Device id 1BE1) on my non g-sync card (1BA1) and card seems to boots fine, but when windows loads Nvidia driver it ends up showing device error 43 and driver unloads. I think there may be some configuration strap on card that allows driver to detect incorrect device id.

To be sure, better ask seller for card vbios and using nvflash command "nvflash --version bios.rom" you can check device ID of card.

Edit: According to this thread, it seems Nvidia Device ID is set at nibble level with strap resistors, values like:

5K = 8
10K = 9
15K = A
20K = B
25K = C
30K = D
35K = E
40K = F

So, while cards with device ID 1BA1 and 1BE1 most probably look the same, is should be possible to mod a 1BE1 card into 1BA1 just by changing one strap resistor value (problem of course is to find which strap resistor).

 

[m0bil]

What about Sleep/Wake? Is it working with this card? I had issues with my GTX980 which failed to wake. I guess OpenCore is still required for loading GOP driver before windows and showing boot loader?

Yes, it works just fine (tested only on windows so far, I screwed my HS partition). Opencore is required to load GOP and have emulated boot screen AND also to make driver for internal speakers work on UEFI windows.

 

[m0bil]

Hi there

Does target display mode work under High Sierra with any of these cards?

Considering a bit of a ridiculous setup:

2 x iMac 2011 27''.

One with a K4100m for work / macOS and

Another with a Maxwell card for Windows gaming and 2nd screen for the work / macOS machine. Would it be possible?

I have no idea, never used TDM on any of my iMacs. Maybe you can ask on the main GPU thread.

 

[Aesthetica]

.

 

[bluecrowHH]

Hey guys, what is with the 1080 mxm? Is underclocking a possibility to bring this down to 125 watts?
Cheers!

 

[m0bil]

Hey guys, what is with the 1080 mxm? Is underclocking a possibility to bring this down to 125 watts?
Cheers!

It's very easy to bring power down, I think you can even add a power limiting policy from nvflash:

nvflash --addpp TGP limitRated 125000

But I have not seen a standard sized MXM GTX 1080, all I've seen are either non standard size and/or require external power.

 

[bluecrowHH]

It's very easy to bring power down, I think you can even add a power limiting policy from nvflash:

nvflash --addpp TGP limitRated 125000

But I have not seen a standard sized MXM GTX 1080, all I've seen are either non standard size and/or require external power.

Hey I just found that offer saying it is optional to supply power with that plug

X NVIDIA GTX 1080 8gb MXM Video Card N17e-g3-a1 online kaufen | eBay

Entdecken Sie X NVIDIA GTX 1080 8gb MXM Video Card N17e-g3-a1 in der großen Auswahl bei eBay. Kostenlose Lieferung für viele Artikel!

www.ebay.de

Have a look please

Cheers!