iM 4,1-14,4 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade

[HealthyFruitSalads]

Well what makes you should be entitled for Apple support a 5 year old computer? And most people who are wanting this are the minority anyways. Why not just get a 2012 or a 2013 model instead? Since your only missing out on changing the graphic card.Also most people buy iMacs because they work anyways.

 

[Schprecher]

Because, those iMacs taped, and soldered graphics card.
i need more space to be free in upgrade or repairs. 2012 iMacs and 2013 or 2014 and deadly 2015
can't make me happy in this little things.

a lot of people, like use a retro cars, because is vintage and practice, easy and damn reliable.
thats be with iMacs 27 2009, 2010, 2011. i think this greats iMacs, its true iMacs,
not Fake, like apple born miscarriage Retina.

When Steve Jobs gone. Apple going to hell with Retina , and iPhone 6
making people matching for Samsung with their Bricks.

We talk about apple support, not free. for the money.
this fact, i say again - a lot of people use old machine, and lot of people never going to new model iMacs
because we love, what we have.

you all here chicken.
and Chatters.

 

[HealthyFruitSalads]

Because, those iMacs taped, and soldered graphics card.
i need more space to be free in upgrade or repairs. 2012 iMacs and 2013 or 2014 and deadly 2015
can't make me happy in this little things.

a lot of people, like use a retro cars, because is vintage and practice, easy and damn reliable.
thats be with iMacs 27 2009, 2010, 2011. i think this greats iMacs, its true iMacs,
not Fake, like apple born miscarriage Retina.

When Steve Jobs gone. Apple going to hell with Retina , and iPhone 6
making people matching for Samsung with their Bricks.

We talk about apple support, not free. for the money.
this fact, i say again - a lot of people use old machine, and lot of people never going to new model iMacs
because we love, what we have.

you all here chicken.
and Chatters.

[doublepost=1459321706][/doublepost]Well even for paying option Apple still are not going to do it anyway for a 5 year old machine and if you don't like it then deal with it but with the retina iMacs design they are not doing it so why bother?
[doublepost=1459322309][/doublepost]Since on the newer iMacs you could still upgrade the CPU at least and just buy the logic board that has the upgraded gpu instead of wanting Apple to cave in hardware support for 5+ old iMacs or spending $300+ for an old HD 6970m which is known to fail or get a random gpu risking no boot screen or no brightness control unless one makes an efi firmware for the gpu
[doublepost=1459322642][/doublepost]Also that machine that you have there isn't going to last forever anyways and why not wait for an iMac with Thunderbolt 3? Since pluging in a GPU should be seamless with out opening it up or spending more for an efi card?

 

[Schprecher]

come on. i don't need buy this sh&& only for some little gifts like thunderbolt 3.
dude, u dont understand a simply logic, apple managers lose money of air,
kicking a lot of users, with their old iMacs, Apple loose a lot of money. Just think. Apple and Money,
again.. Apple and Money. and Apple and Money.
Holy Moly, a little step for apple to support their users with a old machine,
if apple release GTX card for iMac mid 2011, thereby gain up Apple authority. At once.
and everyone tells, oh yeah. great. they make it do this.
cool... and maybe in future, looking on Apple authority and great support for everyone mac users,
pps try buying their new project.
for now, we have see apple strategic to their users ,Apple piss of sh**.
[doublepost=1459329217][/doublepost]For apple need create a new EFI patch for iMac 12,2 (its a main patch for a main EFI)
roll this patch in update. after that, apple can made a graphics card
i think that card need to be a GTX780 with 4Gb.
and sell this as a part, maybe it can as internet shop, or reseller.
let sell this card in apple store.

 

[HealthyFruitSalads]

No YOU don't understand since the most customers buy the iMacs because they just work not tinker with it. Also don't like it then build a PC instead since Apple isn't going to budge for a minority consumer like you. Email Tim Cook if you want still but Apple not doing it due to low demand anyways.

 

[tom3008]

have you spoken to apple directly? not saying they will do anything but its worth a phone call.

that was what i did, first i called the apple support directly, the could not give me a save answer and called me to go to an apple store (not only a apple dealer / seller)
then i called the next apple store and got the answer i wrote u before

 

[Schprecher]

Does anyone try solve this problem? or all lecture hall here just spluttering in thread?

possible why GTX not working with iMac, still inside a 8 mb flash (main efi)
this not working because, there no driver.
looking for a gtx efi driver, i think this we can cut from 2013 late, iMac.
i don't know signature of start efi driver in decimal. try find out later.

 

[tom3008]

i put a gtx 780m in my imac mid 2011 and had first (while black screen) high internet traffic, i think it was the update
but now i only have the black screen since over an hour... any ideas?

 

[Fooze]

i put a gtx 780m in my imac mid 2011 and had first (while black screen) high internet traffic, i think it was the update
but now i only have the black screen since over an hour... any ideas?

Have you tried to restart? I still haven't determined what causes me to still get random black screens upon a restart but the sure fire way to fix it is with a PRAM reset. command-option-p-r

 

[luke9511]

Would a 6770m from an hp laptop work in my mid 2011 27 inch iMac?

 

[havokalien]

not going to know for sure, do a web search and see if anyone has tried it. Again at a minimum you will lose brightness control and boot screen.

 

[tom3008]

Have you tried to restart? I still haven't determined what causes me to still get random black screens upon a restart but the sure fire way to fix it is with a PRAM reset. command-option-p-r

yeah, screen stays complete black
i think it is booting normal and loading the ios, just screen stays black

 

[tom3008]

might the problem be, that my gtx 780m it from an Erazer notebook and not from a Dell / Alienware?

 

[luke9511]

not going to know for sure, do a web search and see if anyone has tried it. Again at a minimum you will lose brightness control and boot screen.

I don't really care about those anyway

 

[havokalien]

full bright can be annoying to some is the only reason I mention it.

 

[luke9511]

full bright can be annoying to some is the only reason I mention it.

My eyesight is not that great anyway so I keep my MacBook at full brightness all the time

 

[yifuhood]

iMac AMD 6970M replacement program has extended to 4 years .
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203787

 

[FaelCarvalhoo]

Hi folks, first sorry for bad english
I have one question about models of graphics card.
I don't know if i will buy iMac radeon 6970 in eBay (if i buy this board i need replace my gpu heatsink from my late 2009 model to a 2011 model?), i have more 4 options:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-DELL-AL...383018?hash=item1c624e4d2a:g:Oo0AAOSwHjNV9tow (i think this board works because mac pro has drivers to this graphics card, if im wrong please let me know).
These 3 models will work fine with my iMac 27" late 2009? i need to know to decide whats model choice
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-Alienw...798226?hash=item25b9d907d2:g:LroAAOSwKtVWwqFI

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ALIENWARE-1...396986?hash=item25b086897a:g:z9MAAOSwgQ9V3wUv

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Alienw...449594?hash=item33b1b03e3a:g:~xkAAOSwmrlUyK7D
thanks so much

 

[Meleeman777]

Damn meleeman... Back at it again with some help needed.

Okay everyone so I'm back once again, I was the one who brought the K3000M to light with a successful install with no drivers needed but I got another card and another iMac. So here it is: Nvidia GeForce GT540M 1GB from an Alienware m11x r3. Installed, got chime and no display. So is Optimus, which is built into the card, stopping it or is this card just incompatible? MacVidCards do you know anything about this card? I know I got the GT610M to show in a hackintosh laptop I did but it also had the Intel HD3000 in it but it still games like a beastly mac. Does anyone have any info on this? I wouldn't mind throwing another card into this forum as a success but need some help

 

[mattDC5R]

iMac AMD 6970M replacement program has extended to 4 years .
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203787

I've just collected my iMac from apple after having the GPU replaced for this. The display started to flick on and off after a few minutes of being on, then eventually the display would just shut off all together. It was past the 4 years of sale extension, but I phoned through to Apple before i took it in and they agreed over the phone to cover it which was great.

Pretty happy with their support really!

 

[Backwardscire]

Hi folks, first sorry for bad english
I have one question about models of graphics card.
I don't know if i will buy iMac radeon 6970 in eBay (if i buy this board i need replace my gpu heatsink from my late 2009 model to a 2011 model?), i have more 4 options:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-DELL-AL...383018?hash=item1c624e4d2a:g:Oo0AAOSwHjNV9tow (i think this board works because mac pro has drivers to this graphics card, if im wrong please let me know).
These 3 models will work fine with my iMac 27" late 2009? i need to know to decide whats model choice
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-Alienw...798226?hash=item25b9d907d2:g:LroAAOSwKtVWwqFI

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ALIENWARE-1...396986?hash=item25b086897a:g:z9MAAOSwgQ9V3wUv

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Alienw...449594?hash=item33b1b03e3a:g:~xkAAOSwmrlUyK7D
thanks so much

If anyone else here knows for sure I too wonder if my late 2009 heat sink is compatible with the 6970M Apple card. A while back I bought a bare card too and swapped it out but unfortunately the card seems to be overheating and throttling back. Replaced the thermal paste and goo on all components but just not sure if something is not touching or just not a compatible heat sink. 2d desktop stuff works great all day long but as soon as I do anything 3D starts to studder. Booted to Windows and used gpu-z and saw that the card immediately shot up to 100-115C with a GPU test and clock speed bounced between stock 680Mhz (I think) and 100MHz

Thoughts? Anyone with a 6970m heat sink they want to sell?

 

[MacVidCards]

I think that you should compare the size and shape of the heatsinks. If you had a low powered card then it is likely that you won't have enough heat dissipation for a higher end card like 6970.

If you look under "imac 6970" or "imac video" on Ebay I saw some folks in China selling just the heatsink, but keep in mind that a 27" iMac will have a different heatsink than a 21" or 24".

On the GOOD NEWS front, we have decided to start some minimal playing around with MXM GPUs. First up we will be able to start keeping a list of which ones work with no EFI and are thus "in the drivers".

We are still actively looking for an LA based Apple parts or repair center to team up with to develop and produce iMac cards.

They are obviously failing in great numbers. If anyone here is friendly with such a facility, send them to our blog.

If we can't find a repair center, we may be interested in working with private parties in LA area who are proficient taking their iMac apart.

I have figured one thing out, flashed iMac GPUs already exist. The people selling them have been able to do so because they never posted a word about it. They just started turning PC cards into Mac ones using an existing rom. Smart move, nobody asks if a card is a flashed PC one if they don't know such a thing exists.

 

[Backwardscire]

I think that you should compare the size and shape of the heatsinks. If you had a low powered card then it is likely that you won't have enough heat dissipation for a higher end card like 6970.

If you look under "imac 6970" or "imac video" on Ebay I saw some folks in China selling just the heatsink, but keep in mind that a 27" iMac will have a different heatsink than a 21" or 24".

On the GOOD NEWS front, we have decided to start some minimal playing around with MXM GPUs. First up we will be able to start keeping a list of which ones work with no EFI and are thus "in the drivers".

We are still actively looking for an LA based Apple parts or repair center to team up with to develop and produce iMac cards.

They are obviously failing in great numbers. If anyone here is friendly with such a facility, send them to our blog.

If we can't find a repair center, we may be interested in working with private parties in LA area who are proficient taking their iMac apart.

I have figured one thing out, flashed iMac GPUs already exist. The people selling them have been able to do so because they never posted a word about it. They just started turning PC cards into Mac ones using an existing rom. Smart move, nobody asks if a card is a flashed PC one if they don't know such a thing exists.

Looking though photos of cards, you may be right that the heatsink just can't transfer enough heat. The 2009 4850m 27" has two copper "pipes" that run from the sink to the fins. The photos of a full card+sink 27" 6970m have three "pipes."

Interestingly, I did find the Chinese seller of just the 6970 heatsinks and at least the photo that they are using is of the heatsink from the 2009 4850. Two "pipes" instead of three. I'll contact them to see if they are accurate photos of what they are selling or just something they pulled from another auction.

I'm looking to sell off my 27" iMac that this is in to fund an upgrade and would love to have this working right for max value, but at least it works perfectly for anything other than 3d. I have a SSD in there with the MacSales temp probe board so even the fans operate as they should.

 

[sheldontung]

Apple got us!
Watch out the new version El Capitan 10.11.5！
780m won't work after the upgrade if web driver is not up to date. But if you doesn't upgrade the OS, web driver can't update. It's very awkward.
That's why I suggested you guys to keep the old graphic card just in case.
After the OS upgrade my screen kept black. So I took 780m out and inserted the old 6970m in to update the web driver. And then put 780m back. Problem solved.

 

[mhafeez]

I have sold my old card long time ago but my 780m updated and runs with El Capitan 10.11.5 just fine without any issue.