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

[Cloud9]

Well...

The only config file that I could get past the apple logo was with the one generated by oclp. So right now I am using that with the backlight kext on my present installed drive and my recovery cd. I have attached a copy of config file here.

I don't know if it will work with the new gpu as its been implied Santas config settings are vital.

Santa's code below I have NOT added to the config. Is it necessary? I know my present config works, but again stock system, I have not installed new hardware yet.

<key>DeviceProperties</key>
<dict>
<key>Add</key>
<dict>
<key>PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)</key>
<dict>
<key>@0,backlight-control</key>
<data>AQAAAA==</data>
<key>@0,built-in</key>
<data>AQAAAA==</data>
<key>@0,display-cfg</key>
<data>/////w==</data>
<key>@0,display-connect-flags</key>
<data>BAAAAA==</data>
<key>@0,pwm-info</key>
<data>AhgAZHhpAAAQJwAAjAoAAAAEAAAAAAAA</data>
<key>APPL,backlight-control</key>
<data>AQAAAA==</data>
<key>agdpmod</key>
<string>vit9696</string>
<key>applbkl</key>
<data>AQAAAA==</data>
<key>shikigva</key>
<integer>40</integer>
</dict>

 

[pseudodeed]

Hello, I'm new in this forum. If I'm doing something wrong, I'm sorry.
I have Linux on my Nortebook and an older Mac version. I have a notebook with an MXM P3000.
Unfortunately the VBios files don't work from here. I also want to overclock my GPU.
Can someone in the forum please change the clock and power settings in my bios file and what else is needed for overclocking like in the bios files in this forum? (P3000M_OC.ROM and P3000M_PWR.ROM)
I haven't found any other forum where someone can do this.
Unfortunately I haven't found any other forum where someone can mod a Pascal bios.
Is there a guide for the bios moddin?
I attach my bios file here.
Thanks and best regards

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hello, I'm new in this forum. If I'm doing something wrong, I'm sorry.
I have Linux on my Nortebook and an older Mac version. I have a notebook with an MXM P3000.
Unfortunately the VBios files don't work from here. I also want to overclock my GPU.
Can someone in the forum please change the clock and power settings in my bios file and what else is needed for overclocking like in the bios files in this forum? (P3000M_OC.ROM and P3000M_PWR.ROM)
I haven't found any other forum where someone can do this.
Unfortunately I haven't found any other forum where someone can mod a Pascal bios.
Is there a guide for the bios moddin?
I attach my bios file here.
Thanks and best regards

This thread is about iMac (2011) systems, only. So the vBIOS versions will very, very unlikely run on arbitrary PC laptop.
You simply hit the wrong server (Macrumors is mostly about real Macs) and certainly the wrong thread (title says it all, doesn't it?).

 

[pseudodeed]

This thread is about iMac (2011) systems, only. So the vBIOS versions will very, very unlikely run on arbitrary PC laptop.
You simply hit the wrong server (Macrumors is mostly about real Macs) and certainly the wrong thread (title says it all, doesn't it?).

Hello i have read the title. I know this forum is only for iMacs. I know this is not a OC thread.

I'm sorry, but maybe someone can help me because:

Unfortunately I haven't found any other forum where someone can mod a Pascal bios.

Maybe
Santa's Little Helper
can help me?

 

[G3llings]

Well...

The only config file that I could get past the apple logo was with the one generated by oclp. So right now I am using that with the backlight kext on my present installed drive and my recovery cd. I have attached a copy of config file here.

I don't know if it will work with the new gpu as its been implied Santas config settings are vital.

Santa's code below I have NOT added to the config. Is it necessary? I know my present config works, but again stock system, I have not installed new hardware yet.

<key>DeviceProperties</key>
<dict>
<key>Add</key>
<dict>
<key>PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)</key>
<dict>
<key>@0,backlight-control</key>
<data>AQAAAA==</data>
<key>@0,built-in</key>
<data>AQAAAA==</data>
<key>@0,display-cfg</key>
<data>/////w==</data>
<key>@0,display-connect-flags</key>
<data>BAAAAA==</data>
<key>@0,pwm-info</key>
<data>AhgAZHhpAAAQJwAAjAoAAAAEAAAAAAAA</data>
<key>APPL,backlight-control</key>
<data>AQAAAA==</data>
<key>agdpmod</key>
<string>vit9696</string>
<key>applbkl</key>
<data>AQAAAA==</data>
<key>shikigva</key>
<integer>40</integer>
</dict>

Yes this is important with the new card.

 

[Cloud9]

.

 

[Cloud9]

Yes this is important with the new card.

Success!!! (Edit: Wake from sleep does not work and a pram reset seems to be required after wake from sleep issue.)

I copied directly from the config for the device properties that included that code. I now have 2 recovery cd's with open core, Santas's code, and back light kext. It is installed on the internal drive also.

I think I am now ready for card install.

One last hiccup...

Webdrivers don't seem to work anymore. I have seen other people post about this in other places online and it seems like it just happened in the last week.

Are webdrivers essential? I could install Windows first if they are.

I also read in Mobils post that I can maybe now upgrade past high Sierra? Is that still possible without web drivers?

The only thing I would use macOS for would be Lightroom and garage band. No gaming. Lightroom requires 10.15 but I don't have to use it on the iMac. It would just be something for my kids. Honestly I can live with this being a windows only machine, Mac OS is just prettier.


I might make my own guide after I'm all done that would help someone with my lack of competence lol! I think I have the process down by now.

iMac Quadro P3000M & P4000M roms:

....

Booting from OpenCore will now enable the display even without drivers,
so you can actually boot newer MacOS versions with no web driver support,
(obviously with no acceleration but basic 2D works, even Youtube videos etc)

I should be able to upgrade past high Sierra and web drivers should not be necessary?
I think I am going to install the SSD next, install windows on that, make sure I can boot into windows and mac, then swap the card.

 

[m0bil]

Success!!! (Edit: Wake from sleep does not work and a pram reset seems to be required after wake from sleep issue.)

I copied directly from the config for the device properties that included that code. I now have 2 recovery cd's with open core, Santas's code, and back light kext. It is installed on the internal drive also.

I think I am now ready for card install.

One last hiccup...

Webdrivers don't seem to work anymore. I have seen other people post about this in other places online and it seems like it just happened in the last week.

Are webdrivers essential? I could install Windows first if they are.

I also read in Mobils post that I can maybe now upgrade past high Sierra? Is that still possible without web drivers?

The only thing I would use macOS for would be Lightroom and garage band. No gaming. Lightroom requires 10.15 but I don't have to use it on the iMac. It would just be something for my kids. Honestly I can live with this being a windows only machine, Mac OS is just prettier.


I might make my own guide after I'm all done that would help someone with my lack of competence lol! I think I have the process down by now.



I should be able to upgrade past high Sierra and web drivers should not be necessary?
I think I am going to install the SSD next, install windows on that, make sure I can boot into windows and mac, then swap the card.

You need webdrivers for gfx acceleration on High Sierra. Since the display works on boot when using OCLP, you can install later version of Macos but Webdrivers will not work after High Sierra and there is no acceleration support, so the system will be sluggish and almost unusable, not recommended.

BTW, there is now alpha support in OCLP for Maxwell/Pascal acceleration patching on BigSur and Monterey (no metal), still untested by me and very alpha, but can be a way to make Big Sur work with this cards.

 

[Cloud9]

You need webdrivers for gfx acceleration on High Sierra. Since the display works on boot when using OCLP, you can install later version of Macos but Webdrivers will not work after High Sierra and there is no acceleration support, so the system will be sluggish and almost unusable, not recommended.

BTW, there is now alpha support in OCLP for Maxwell/Pascal acceleration patching on BigSur and Monterey (no metal), still untested by me and very alpha, but can be a way to make Big Sur work with this cards.

I don’t think web drivers work anymore for anyone connected to the internet. There’s threads on them being broken from a network call in.

Good news is the alpha. I may look into that today.

My windows install crashed during set up. Going to try to reinstall today without internet and hope it’s related to hd3000 drivers.

 

[m0bil]

I don’t think web drivers work anymore for anyone connected to the internet. There’s threads on them being broken from a network call in.

Good news is the alpha. I may look into that today.

My windows install crashed during set up. Going to try to reinstall today without internet and hope it’s related to hd3000 drivers.

You are right, it seems Nvidia certificates for web drivers have been revoked...

Windows install will crash on first boot with internet, it's a well known HD3000 driver problem. Best way to avoid is to boot on safe mode or on first boot and create a policy to avoid driver install for the HD3000.

 

[Cloud9]

Getting Windows running is a real chore.

To get windows running I discconected the internal ssd. I installed windows pro n to get group policy access. I had to boot without internet. I added bootcamp files but I had to delete ati and nvida drivers from the bootcamp files directory in order to not crash after installing the support files. I set group policy to wall off the display adapter after installing the support files as the support files seem to change the device id. I disabled driver updates from control panel and from the group policy. I also deleted machalsystem and another file from windows system 32 per this reddit post. I replaced machaldriver with the posters custom file, I then connected ethernet and wifi and switched to metered connections. This last step with the custom file is probably going trigger people but I didnt know how else to get this to stay booted and with internet.

Except for occasional weird things that require nvram reset I seem to have working opencore installs for mac os high sierra and windows 10.

Next is surgery which I think is Sunday or Monday.

Part of me would rather dual boot proton after dealing with windows to have gaming.

 

[Cloud9]

Heat sink grounded. VRMS taped. New thermal paste on die. Card is in.

Black screen, but I do get boot chime. External thunderbolt is also off. Fans don't really kick in unless the lcd is out. I do not see my mac on the network.

I could have a dead card. But what should I check first?

Tomorrow I am going to reflash the gpu with asprogrammer and reinstall.

2 leds

edit: Bios was loaded, tried lower watt bios. Same thing. Going to try one more time tomorrow.

 

[G3llings]

Heat sink grounded. VRMS taped. New thermal paste on die. Card is in.

Black screen, but I do get boot chime. External thunderbolt is also off. Fans don't really kick in unless the lcd is out. I do not see my mac on the network.

I could have a dead card. But what should I check first?

Tomorrow I am going to reflash the gpu with asprogrammer and reinstall.

2 leds

edit: Bios was loaded, tried lower watt bios. Same thing. Going to try one more time tomorrow.

I had similar issues with my m4000m upgrade. I think I ended up going with strictly Windows 10 (no opencore) so I knew the screen would load eventually once windows loaded basic drivers. I feel like changing out the gpu resets the PRAM or something and loses your boot choice... After that I was able to use DiskGenius to copy opencore into my EFI and then "bless" OpenCore using command prompt. Once you have OpenCore boot screen you can reinstall macOS.

Edit: also use Ethernet instead of wifi if possible and pre-install TeamViewer to have remote access in case screen does not turn on for some reason.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

You are right, it seems Nvidia certificates for web drivers have been revoked...

Windows install will crash on first boot with internet, it's a well known HD3000 driver problem. Best way to avoid is to boot on safe mode or on first boot and create a policy to avoid driver install for the HD3000.

So if the HD3000 driver is a problem, then the Xeon E3-12x0 can be a good candidate to solve this problem?
I recently got a hold on an iMac 2011 with a half-dead HD6770m, might give M4000m a shot.

 

[G3llings]

So if the HD3000 driver is a problem, then the Xeon E3-12x0 can be a good candidate to solve this problem?
I recently got a hold on an iMac 2011 with a half-dead HD6770m, might give M4000m a shot.

I ran the e3-1270 in mine. You lose sleep function, but I always disable sleep anyway.

 

[m0bil]

So if the HD3000 driver is a problem, then the Xeon E3-12x0 can be a good candidate to solve this problem?
I recently got a hold on an iMac 2011 with a half-dead HD6770m, might give M4000m a shot.

Yeah, but then you may have sleep problems. Anyway HD3000 driver it's not a big problem, you just have to boot on safe mode and create the policy that avoids any further driver install for the HD3000, that fixes it forever.
It's not worth to change CPU just for that.

If you can get hold of a cheap P3000 I'd recommend it over the M4000M, much better performance and lower temps with the overclocked version (but you need hardware programmer to flash eeprom).

 

[m0bil]

Heat sink grounded. VRMS taped. New thermal paste on die. Card is in.

Black screen, but I do get boot chime. External thunderbolt is also off. Fans don't really kick in unless the lcd is out. I do not see my mac on the network.

I could have a dead card. But what should I check first?

Tomorrow I am going to reflash the gpu with asprogrammer and reinstall.

2 leds

edit: Bios was loaded, tried lower watt bios. Same thing. Going to try one more time tomorrow.

difficult to say, could be

- Opencore problem. As @G3llings said, having a working windows install with Nvidia driver would let you boot without opencore, you won't have bootscreen but the display should work when windows loads nvidia drivers.

- Hardware install problem. You could try to boot with card without heatsink to discard heatsink install problems. Don't have the computer on more than 30-40 seconds without the heatsink, it's just a boot test. Also try to boot without card, you should be able to access iMac from remote access using network.

- Defective card. Only way to be sure is to test it on another windows pc with mxm slot (and even that can be tricky due to different display configurations).


I'd say a defective card is of course possible but usually the least probably cause.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Yeah, but then you may have sleep problems. Anyway HD3000 driver it's not a big problem, you just have to boot on safe mode and create the policy that avoids any further driver install for the HD3000, that fixes it forever.
It's not worth to change CPU just for that.

If you can get hold of a cheap P3000 I'd recommend it over the M4000M, much better performance and lower temps with the overclocked version (but you need hardware programmer to flash eeprom).

I really don't understand the mechanism here.
If I install the Xeon E3-1270 + flashed M4000m from the beginning, Windows will not load or install any iGPU driver, will it? I assume it would just install nVDIA driver for M4000m.
I currently have only the core i5, and considering buying either i7-2600 (41$) or Xeon E3-1270 (28$). From my angle, the Xeon is better because of its lower TDP => less stress to the heatsink and PSU.

And I don't really need to sleep the computer, just turning off the LCD is good enough.

 

[m0bil]

I really don't understand the mechanism here.
If I install the Xeon E3-1270 + flashed M4000m from the beginning, Windows will not load or install any iGPU driver, will it? I assume it would just install nVDIA driver for M4000m.
I currently have only the core i5, and considering buying either i7-2600 (41$) or Xeon E3-1270 (28$). From my angle, the Xeon is better because of its lower TDP => less stress to the heatsink and PSU.

And I don't really need to sleep the computer, just turning off the LCD is good enough.

On how to create the group policy to block HD3000 driver, it's explained here.

On any cpu without integrated iGPU, windows will not install the iGPU driver, no problem with that.

Keep in mind that not sleeping will make the iMac consume much more power, even with LCD off. A sleeping iMac consumes slightly above 1W.

 

[Cloud9]

difficult to say, could be

- Opencore problem. As @G3llings said, having a working windows install with Nvidia driver would let you boot without opencore, you won't have bootscreen but the display should work when windows loads nvidia drivers.

- Hardware install problem. You could try to boot with card without heatsink to discard heatsink install problems. Don't have the computer on more than 30-40 seconds without the heatsink, it's just a boot test. Also try to boot without card, you should be able to access iMac from remote access using network.

- Defective card. Only way to be sure is to test it on another windows pc with mxm slot (and even that can be tricky due to different display configurations).


I'd say a defective card is of course possible but usually the least probably cause.

Lots of great things to try here! Thank you!

One thing I might be confused on.

When I pulled the old card there was thermal putty from the ram modules touching the heat sink. So I assumed those were supposed to make contact, but nothing else, like vrms.

If this is incorrect let me know. I’m hoping I just shorted it. Checking windows will be easy. I’ll Just disconnected my Mac OS drive.

My assumption is 1 led means theres power, 2 leds means logic board works. 3 means gpu accepta electricity. 4 means the gpu is sentient.

 

[G3llings]

i7-2600 (41$) or Xeon E3-1270 (28$). From my angle, the Xeon is better because of its lower TDP => less stress to the heatsink and PSU.

This is exactly why I went with the e3-1270. E3 is much cheaper and lower tdp = lower temps = longer boost clock.

 

[m0bil]

Lots of great things to try here! Thank you!

One thing I might be confused on.

When I pulled the old card there was thermal putty from the ram modules touching the heat sink. So I assumed those were supposed to make contact, but nothing else, like vrms.

If this is incorrect let me know. I’m hoping I just shorted it. Checking windows will be easy. I’ll Just disconnected my Mac OS drive.

My assumption is 1 led means theres power, 2 leds means logic board works. 3 means gpu accepta electricity. 4 means the gpu is sentient.

For the vram I use 1mm thermal pads between heatsink and chips.

Diagnostic led 3 means bios has found gpu and loaded UEFI/GOP driver, this will not light in our case as the UEFI/GOP is done on later stage by Opencore, not bios.

Diagnostic led 4 means internal lcd display is found and communicates with gpu (I seem to recall...).

 

[Cloud9]

Found out last night the stock x bracket I reused was making contact with some things it shouldnt. I switched it back to the 1070s x bracket, but same results.

Going to try naked card tonight after I confirm stock still works and my drives will boot.

 

[Cloud9]

I think I might have damaged pins on my lcd cable. Somehow also broke the odd temp sensor cable.

I put the stock card back in, and tried to boot with either os drive connected by itself and get nothing even with pram resets. The logic board has 3 leds, my external thunderbolt doesn't show anything.

I haven't tried the naked card yet because im not sure if my lcd works or not with a potentially damaged cable.

I noticed tonight I didnt get the same insertion click on the cable when putting the stock card back in. I really hope the socket is ok.

At this point I have to finish the project with how much time I have sunk in it.

Are there things I can test without a working lcd?

 

[jay508]

Seeing that Black Apple's Pascal gtx1080 big sur 11.6.3 monterey 12.2 WEB driver can be driven properly, is it perhaps possible on the iMac as well?