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

[m0bil]

Ok, I couldn't refrain myself and tested my M4000M on my 12,2 (swapped it for the 780M).

First, I had to grind a bit more the heatsink as it looked like one of the R22 coils were touching it.
Then I flashed vbios from linux, yes! it did work with the version I posted here:

root@grml /lib/live/mount/medium/flash # ./nvflash -6 M4000M_OC_BR.rom

NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.218)
Modified Version by Joe Dirt  

Checking for matches between display adapter(s) and image(s)...

Adapter: N16E-Q3              (10DE,13F9,10DE,1125) H:--:NRM S:00,B:01,PCI,D:00,F:00

WARNING: Firmware image PCI Subsystem ID (1028.06DA)
  does not match adapter PCI Subsystem ID (10DE.1125).

Please press 'y' to confirm override of PCI Subsystem ID's:  y
Overriding PCI subsystem ID mismatch
Current      - Version:84.04.9B.00.06 ID:10DE:13F9:10DE:1125
               GM204 Board (Normal Board)
Replace with - Version:DE.AD.00.BE.EF ID:10DE:13F9:1028:06DA
               GM204 Board (Normal Board)

Update display adapter firmware?
Press 'y' to confirm (any other key to abort):  y
The display may go *BLANK* on and off for up to 10 seconds or more during the update process depending on your display adapter and output device.

Identifying EEPROM...
EEPROM ID (C2,2012) : MX MX25L2005 2.7-3.6V 2048Kx1S, page
Clearing original firmware image...
Storing updated firmware image...
.......
Verifying update...
Update successful.

Firmware image has been updated from version 84.04.9B.00.06 to DE.AD.00.BE.EF.

A reboot is required for the update to take effect.

./nvflash -6 M4000M_OC_BR.rom  30.04s user 35.68s system 74% cpu 1:28.72 total

Then tested card on High Sierra, booting from OCLP 0.2.5 nightly modded with changes stated by @Santa's Little Helper

There is emulated boot screen (yes!), High Sierra seems to work great with Web Drivers, brightness control works (a bit dim at max brightness, guess that can be corrected by plist edit as with other with Nvidia cards).
Did a quick test on Valley and card seems to perform equal or better than the 780M, at much lower temps (GPU die was at 69C max, and I had front frame and ODD removed so airflow was far from optimal).
Will do a bit more testing on High Sierra, and have to install Windows on a separate drive to make further testing.

 

[G3llings]

I tried to install High Sierra on another partition of my windows drive and somehow screwed up the EFI partition. I cannot get boot screen back on the internal SSD no matter what I do! I have a copy of open core on SD card that works, but even if I copy it over to the SSD I don't have any luck. I was unable to get the web drivers installed under macOS. It kept telling me that I needed 10.13.6, but that is what I had installed. I assumed it was because of opencore, but can't get rEFInd to boot natively now

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Can you show the current contents of your disk0s1 partition when mounted to /Volumes/EFI by sudo diskutil mount disk0s1 assuming you have only a single SSD installed in your iMac?

 

[G3llings]

I am currently reinstalling High Sierra as the first OS on the drive. Then I am going to install rEFInd and RefindPlus through macOS since I seem to have better luck with doing it that way. After I have that booting I will re-install Windows.

 

[G3llings]

I'm really struggling with this. I've been fighting with it for a few hours now. It seems like I can boot from OpenCore SD until high Sierra is installed. Then it takes over and OpenCore no longer loads.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Do not understand? Boot HS and select the SD card from the system preferences as start object and reboot.
What means taking over…

 

[G3llings]

Do not understand? Boot HS and select the SD card from the system preferences as start object and reboot.
What means taking over…

The SD card doesn't show in boot options and once I go to reboot it seems to go directly to macOS with no internal display.

 

[m0bil]

For reference, here is the OpenCore EFI I used for High Sierra testing on the M4000M. It is just a quick hack I did for testing with Santa's indications. Brightness control works (max brightness is too dim). It's in no way optimized and I think it loads some kext not intended for High Sierra, and may even create some conflicts, but it worked for me. I may try to make a better one once I reinstall High Sierra as I just accidentally wiped the High Sierra partition while installing windows 10

I compressed it with 7zip as it was too big to upload as a zip file, so if extraction does not work just change extension from .zip to .7z

 

[m0bil]

The SD card doesn't show in boot options and once I go to reboot it seems to go directly to macOS with no internal display.

have you tried a PRAM reset ?

 

[m0bil]

I was unable to get the web drivers installed under macOS. It kept telling me that I needed 10.13.6, but that is what I had installed.

There are many web drivers versions for 10.13.6. Click on the "10.13.6" in About this Mac and a detailed version number appears, like 17G14042. Then look for the web drivers for that version (for 17G14042 it is Nvidia Web Driver - 387.10.10.10.40.140).

 

[m0bil]

I tried to install High Sierra on another partition of my windows drive and somehow screwed up the EFI partition. I cannot get boot screen back on the internal SSD no matter what I do! I have a copy of open core on SD card that works, but even if I copy it over to the SSD I don't have any luck. I was unable to get the web drivers installed under macOS. It kept telling me that I needed 10.13.6, but that is what I had installed. I assumed it was because of opencore, but can't get rEFInd to boot natively now

Also I think iMac has a limitation that only one EFI boot can be active in a drive, I mean you cannot have Windows 10 EFI boot and OpenCore on the same EFI partition (only one is loaded), so if you need to use OpenCore to load Windows 10 you have to put OpenCore on another drive, USB or SD, boot from it and then choose Windows.

If you just screwed Windows 10 EFI (Microsoft EFI directory) boot entries, here is a way to fix it that worked for me in the past.

 

[G3llings]

For reference, here is the OpenCore EFI I used for High Sierra testing on the M4000M. It is just a quick hack I did for testing with Santa's indications. Brightness control works (max brightness is too dim). It's in no way optimized and I think it loads some kext not intended for High Sierra, and may even create some conflicts, but it worked for me. I may try to make a better one once I reinstall High Sierra as I just accidentally wiped the High Sierra partition while installing windows 10

I compressed it with 7zip as it was too big to upload as a zip file, so if extraction does not work just change extension from .zip to .7z

Thanks! Where's the best place to put this? On a bootable USB like the windows or macOS installer?

have you tried a PRAM reset ?

I have. It seems like I can only do a PRAM reset when a bootable drive is recognized. Is that typical?

Also I think iMac has a limitation that only one EFI boot can be active in a drive, I mean you cannot have Windows 10 EFI boot and OpenCore on the same EFI partition (only one is loaded), so if you need to use OpenCore to load Windows 10 you have to put OpenCore on another drive, USB or SD, boot from it and then choose Windows.

If you just screwed Windows 10 EFI (Microsoft EFI directory) boot entries, here is a way to fix it that worked for me in the past.

From my experience you can only have one BOOTX64.efi in \EFI\BOOT... however, OpenCore and rEFInd can boot UEFI Windows from bootmgfw.efi.

 

[jay508]

My m4000m p3000 p4000 have received a new installation of 10.13.6 Windows 10 to start testing

 

[G3llings]

Wow that was a mess! Finally back up and running with RefindPlus as my main boot loader. Using OpenCore to load into macOS to properly display my Xeon and for @Santa's Little Helper fixes. Next step is to backup my EFI and then install Windows 10 UEFI on a second partition 🤞

 

[jay508]

Wow that was a mess! Finally back up and running with RefindPlus as my main boot loader. Using OpenCore to load into macOS to properly display my Xeon and for @Santa's Little Helper fixes. Next step is to backup my EFI and then install Windows 10 UEFI on a second partition 🤞

View attachment 1835783

What is the difference between RefindPlus and OpenCore. I installed Windows 10 with OpenCore boot and everything is fine. macOS can't max brightness and 780m 880m similar situation max brightness is only 80% of the original how to solve this.


FurMark stress test The maximum temperature hovers steadily at around 85 degrees.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

What is the difference between RefindPlus and OpenCore. I installed Windows 10 with OpenCore boot and everything is fine. macOS can't max brightness and 780m 880m similar situation max brightness is only 80% of the original how to solve this.


FurMark stress test The maximum temperature hovers steadily at around 85 degrees.

I think 80% brightness is the best, right?
I always keep my LCD brightness at 50% on the stock GPU.

 

[m0bil]

macOS can't max brightness and 780m 880m similar situation max brightness is only 80% of the original how to solve this.

To fix brightness level you can try this solution that worked for other Nvidia cards. You can load this kext using Opencore or just install it to System/Library/Extensions using kextutility.

Edit: I just tested it and can confirm this fix works on M4000M, loading the AppleBackightFixup kext using opencore fixes max brightness level.

 

[m0bil]

I think 80% brightness is the best, right?
I always keep my LCD brightness at 50% on the stock GPU.

I think he means that even setting brightness at 100% it looks too dim, that was a usual problem with Nvidia cards.

 

[m0bil]

@G3llings and @jay508 does sleep work for you on High Sierra ?? iMac never wakes from "deep" sleep and there's a panic report when I force reboot it, always on AppleIntelSNBFraphicsFB. If it works for you, it may have to do something with my opencore setup.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

@G3llings and @jay508 does sleep work for you on High Sierra ?? iMac never wakes from "deep" sleep and there's a panic report when I force reboot it, always on AppleIntelSNBFraphicsFB. If it works for you, it may have to do something with my opencore setup.

Which SMBIOS do you spoof currently? Using the iMacPro1,1 needs a different patched version of the AppleIntelSNBFraphicsFB.kext installed or injected (injection could work on High Sierra). Attached you will find this.

User of XEON CPU might not have this problem when disabling the iGPU completely. So it depends on your specific OC setup.

BTW: OCLP disables the iGPU....

 

[G3llings]

What is the difference between RefindPlus and OpenCore. I installed Windows 10 with OpenCore boot and everything is fine.

RefindPlus is strictly a boot loader with fixes for GOP boot screen so it is completely native, no other patches (unless you choose to add them). I use this as my main screen, and then from there I can choose multiple boot options like native macOS, OpenCore macOS, Windows, any USB. I could also run multiple OpenCore setups, like if I wanted to run patches for High Sierra on one and Big Sur specific on another.

does sleep work for you on High Sierra ?? iMac never wakes from "deep" sleep and there's a panic report when I force reboot it, always on AppleIntelSNBFraphicsFB. If it works for you, it may have to do something with my opencore setup.

I believe there is a kext patch for Sandy bridge sleep. I knowingly gave up sleep when I bought the Xeon. The lower price and 80w vs 95w was a better option than the i7 2600 for me. I always turn off sleep anyway so I can have TeamViewer access to my computers whenever I would like.

 

[jay508]

@G3llings and @jay508 does sleep work for you on High Sierra ?? iMac never wakes from "deep" sleep and there's a panic report when I force reboot it, always on AppleIntelSNBFraphicsFB. If it works for you, it may have to do something with my opencore setup.

I did not use the sleep function are not shut down, turned off the sleep.

 

[jay508]

iMac Quadro M4000M rom:

- Enables the internal display
- Enables GOP boot-screen
- Brightness control with OpenCore
- Full Boost clocks in MacOS & Windows
- Can overclock to 1148MHz in Windows

Must be flashed from WINDOWS using remote access and this hacked nvflash:

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/nvidia-nvflash-with-certificate-checks-bypassed/

You should be able to install un-modified Windows drivers,
or the correct Web Drivers for your exact MacOS build:

http://www.macvidcards.com/drivers.html

https://dortania.github.io/GPU-Buye...ia-gpu.html#maxwell-series-gtx-9xx-745-750-ti

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)

Brightness control in MacOS requires OpenCore to do three things:
Load the web drivers using nvda_drv_vrl=1 (add to OpenCore's boot args)
Spoof the "shiki" or Board ID to iMac 14,2 (Mac-27ADBB7B4CEE8E61)
Inject some additional Device Properties, just add them to your config.plist:

<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>

External displays are disabled and will NOT work with this vBIOS.
Don't update the GOP, this one is patched to load on Apple EFI 1.10
so can work with older OpenCore / rEFInd+ (prior to @joevt 's fixes)

Going off-topic, those Dell Quadro P3000 / P4000 cards could also be good options.
Sadly there's no hacked nvflash for Pascal, so patched roms need flashing with a clip,
the CH341A will also need the 1.8v EEPROM adapter - don't forget or you'll fry the card!

🎅

@Santa's Little Helper just tested Pascal p3000 vbios is nvidia public version, macOS Windows10 are not boot screen I think is no gop reason.

macOS Windows10 are normal to enter the system internal screen does not show through the remote desktop login to view is normal drive.

Windows10 under the performance test close to the mobile version gtx1650 ti gtx1660ti performance is very good.

Temperature is also very ideal than maxwell m4000m heat lower Furmark stress test video memory Core frequency can be normal acceleration, tpd power consumption in the 65w-75w between the variation. Standby temperature is below 50 degrees Celsius. Extreme test temperature is below 70 degrees Celsius, the same m4000m test 85 degrees Celsius.

How can Pascal add maxwell like internal screen display and startup screen. Thank you!

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

 

[jay508]

This is based on the vbios version of @Santa's Little Helper, tested on Windows 10, with core frequencies unlocked to 1126ghz and 1203ghz. When unlocked and overclocked to 1203ghz, the test performance is close to the p3000 test score. The heat generated by the m4000m is about 15 degrees Celsius higher than the p3000. m4000m can also be unlocked at higher frequencies and the heat generated will be greater. Unlocked to 1203ghz all tests are very stable.

The same test method gtx780m gtx880m because the temperature is too high can exceed 100 degrees Celsius, will be too high because the temperature leads to hardware protection shutdown crash.

I am not very good at macOS system, most of the tests are based on Windows 10 system.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

 

[m0bil]

Which SMBIOS do you spoof currently? Using the iMacPro1,1 needs a different patched version of the AppleIntelSNBFraphicsFB.kext installed or injected (injection could work on High Sierra). Attached you will find this.

User of XEON CPU might not have this problem when disabling the iGPU completely. So it depends on your specific OC setup.

BTW: OCLP disables the iGPU....

My OpenCore install is a mess, intended as a quick hack to test the card: I started as latest OCLP with minimum spoof, modded it to remove most kexts and change board id to iMac 14,2 as Santa's said for brightness control, then added FakeSMC and backlight fixup kexts... I should start new if I intend to do some serious testing Never had sleep problems before, but also didn't use High Sierra with OpenCore.