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2011 27" Gpu

faffer

faffer

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 23, 2022
22
8
Doing a bit of researching into diy replacing a "failed" gpu Imac 27 2011. Not currently thinking of an upgrade just a replacement. Is it just a case of like for like gb size replacement? until I get it out I'm assuming it will be 1gb, then there is the question of where to find a replacement.
A bit of context recently bought a 27 2010 (2.7i5/1gb) with hdd failure, managed ssd installation just fine. However the front glass had an edge chip which became a crack. Bought another 27 2011 (supposedly the 3.* i7) with gpu fault primarily for the front glass, on collection (in original box and superb condition) I'm torn between my original building one from the two (presumably the processor can be swapped over) but find myself leaning towards repairing the 2011.
 
faffer said:
Doing a bit of researching into diy replacing a "failed" gpu Imac 27 2011. Not currently thinking of an upgrade just a replacement. Is it just a case of like for like gb size replacement? until I get it out I'm assuming it will be 1gb, then there is the question of where to find a replacement.
A bit of context recently bought a 27 2010 (2.7i5/1gb) with hdd failure, managed ssd installation just fine. However the front glass had an edge chip which became a crack. Bought another 27 2011 (supposedly the 3.* i7) with gpu fault primarily for the front glass, on collection (in original box and superb condition) I'm torn between my original building one from the two (presumably the processor can be swapped over) but find myself leaning towards repairing the 2011.
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Welcome to the club....

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2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade

iMac 2009 to 2011 MXM3 graphics card upgrade (Lastest update 10/13/2023 - this is the official documentation page - you found it finally!) This is the single and only documentation post. During the last years we constantly updated this post to reflect the lastet development of vBIOS and OCLP...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
 
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Thanks, I had a read through that last night before posting. For now I'd like to see if I can get the 2011 up and running, more than likely with just another Imac gpu. If a premodded, straight fit gpu was available, then maybe I'd go "upgrade",we'll see.
 
faffer said:
Thanks, I had a read through that last night before posting. For now I'd like to see if I can get the 2011 up and running, more than likely with just another Imac gpu. If a premodded, straight fit gpu was available, then maybe I'd go "upgrade",we'll see.
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Sourcing an original OEM GPU for 2011 iMac is going to be difficult because the GPU's were faulty. The number of working OEM GPU's will be slim. Beware OEM GPU's that have been refurbished (i.e, "baked"). These may work for a short period of time but will fail. Even if you find an original OEM which hasn't been baked and is working, more than likely it will eventually fail with consistent use. If you plan to use the iMac a lot and want to keep it working for years, upgrade the GPU to a Metal compatible GPU. This is the way.
 
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Bigwaff said:
Sourcing an original OEM GPU for 2011 iMac is going to be difficult because the GPU's were faulty. The number of working OEM GPU's will be slim. Beware OEM GPU's that have been refurbished (i.e, "baked"). These may work for a short period of time but will fail. Even if you find an original OEM which hasn't been baked and is working, more than likely it will eventually fail with consistent use. If you plan to use the iMac a lot and want to keep it working for years, upgrade the GPU to a Metal compatible GPU. This is the way.
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I think your using of "OEM" term is not what I'm thinking of. Your description matchs with what I name "old stock GPU salvaged from old iMac 2011" rather than "OEM".

And those old stock GPUs, as problematic as they are, still available on online shop at not very high prices. (HD6750 or 6770 are more reasonably priced)
 
Nguyen Duc Hieu said:
I think your using of "OEM" term is not what I'm thinking of. Your description matchs with what I name "old stock GPU salvaged from old iMac 2011" rather than "OEM".

And those old stock GPUs, as problematic as they are, still available on online shop at not very high prices. (HD6750 or 6770 are more reasonably priced)
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We are on the same page. My "OEM" use = "old stock GPU salvaged from old iMac 2011". Cheers.
 
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I agree with the upgrading idea but with "limited" skills it would have to be a premodded straight fit scenario. Finally was in the mood to have a play today (had the cold thats doing the rounds). The 2011 had been diagnosed with faulty gpu by a n other, who removed the hdd and put the rest back together with display disconnected. Put back the display connections and hooked up external hdd, booting up had a few vertical stripes and some blank screens, then it sprung into life. Not convinced, it is by any means going to stay working but as mid 2011 3.4 i7 AMD6970 1024mb seems more than mid 2010 2.8 i5 Ati 5750 1024mb. I'm at the very least, for the time being, going to repaste the gpu & processor in the 2011. Any thoughts on what are good products to use? Just off to have a search for a hdd fixing kit and a couple of display screws that are missing since it was opened up.
 
faffer said:
I agree with the upgrading idea but with "limited" skills it would have to be a premodded straight fit scenario. Finally was in the mood to have a play today (had the cold thats doing the rounds). The 2011 had been diagnosed with faulty gpu by a n other, who removed the hdd and put the rest back together with display disconnected. Put back the display connections and hooked up external hdd, booting up had a few vertical stripes and some blank screens, then it sprung into life. Not convinced, it is by any means going to stay working but as mid 2011 3.4 i7 AMD6970 1024mb seems more than mid 2010 2.8 i5 Ati 5750 1024mb. I'm at the very least, for the time being, going to repaste the gpu & processor in the 2011. Any thoughts on what are good products to use? Just off to have a search for a hdd fixing kit and a couple of display screws that are missing since it was opened up.
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HDD fixing kit is not necessary, just screw 1 hole of the SSD to the top. The original steel gasket is pretty difficult to find once missing.

Display screw: 4 screws are enough. Those are also quite hard to find...

GPU: depending on which OS you plan to install:
For Windows I would suggest Quadro M4000m (personal opinion, stable and reasonably priced)
For Mac OS: Quadro K4100m is OK, but as they are old, nothing fancy. (or K3100m with better price)
If spending some money isn't a problem with you, then search for the beast: WX7100m ver 1.1 (equivalent to RX480 of the PC version) or even better: Quadro P5000m if you plan to use on Windows only.
Please be reminded that those cards were designed for Windows Laptop, and need some vBIOS hack as well as heatsink hack to fit inside your iMac 2011.
 
Re the hdd/display, used bits seem readily available on the worldwide market place, so that could easily be sorted. Briefly looking up some of those gpus, I don't think I'd be going down that route as the "hacks" would be the showstopper. For what I use the machine for, High Sierra is enough. Prior to all this I was happily using a 2009 21.5 Imac (now its replaced with the 2010, I've been able to experiment with different OS's on it) until I fancied the bigger 27" screen. Now that the cracked glass (2010) is in the bin as it became two pieces, just held by its edge tape, I'm contemplating purchasing a third complete non working 27", for its bits and to practice dissasembling on. Then possibly a like for like gpu (something I've seen on line). For now, its more the heat sink compound/paste recomendations I'm looking for, as the choices available seem overwhelming.
 
In a just for getting it working scenario, could a 2010 gpu be used on a 2011 Imac? ie are there any differences between the different brands.
 
That sounds promising, I've just bought a third faulty 27 Imac (supposedly failed psu) not got it home yet, (friend picked it up for me) a 2010 i5 with 32g of ram, looking up the serial no says it has a 1gb card. So in theory I've the hdd kit, the front glass the ram and maybe a gpu to go with the 2011, then possibly another working machine. The 2011 does actually work to a degree as is, it shows vertical stripes on power up, then will boot fine into el capitan which seems happy to be used. Slightly different story booting into high sierra though.
 
faffer said:
That sounds promising, I've just bought a third faulty 27 Imac (supposedly failed psu) not got it home yet, (friend picked it up for me) a 2010 i5 with 32g of ram, looking up the serial no says it has a 1gb card. So in theory I've the hdd kit, the front glass the ram and maybe a gpu to go with the 2011, then possibly another working machine. The 2011 does actually work to a degree as is, it shows vertical stripes on power up, then will boot fine into el capitan which seems happy to be used. Slightly different story booting into high sierra though.
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A minor notice:
The front glass of iMac 2010 will weaken your 2011's bluetooth signal, due to difference in location of the bluetooth module.
 
Interestingly I've been offered a glass front from someone else, does anyone have the part no for the 2011 glass?
 
Actually, scratch that. I'd lost track for a moment there. I've got both 2010 & 2011 front glasses, just need to swap them back around.
 
Finally got round to having a go at it. Firstly the 2010 & 2011 front glasses are different parts nos, so that has been addressed. The 2011 was stripped down and put back together with hdd kit, ram & gpu from the donor 2010 (also re-pasted cpu while I was in there). Alas, nothing on the display. However I can vnc into it and it all seems to be working apart from it not recognising the gpu, so although not massively further on, I'm happy with progress so far.
 
Been a while. I'd picked up up a fourth Imac (2011/3.4 i7/2g) with faults, no usb and left hand screen dim. Had it running with bluetooth keyboard etc, seemed to work okay screen would be better longer it was on. Had the house to myself for a few days so got all the bits out for a play. Tore down No4 put the gpu into No2, it worked for a while until it started rebooting every few minutes, continued to replace the power board then the cpu, tried different memory, still wants to reboot itself, I'm now thinking it may be the systemboard. Resurrected No3 put its gpu back in and one of the power boards, got that back up and running, although it reports "no hardware found" on the wifi, (even tried the 3 connector board from the now completely stripped No4) don't know if its a missed connection somewhere. I've seen a replacement board for approx £5, might just try replacing it. If nothing else, for me, it has removed the taboo of stripping and rebuilding the Imac, on the plus side, I have two 2010 Imacs one fully working and the other working albeit minus its wifi.
 
How does one know if he gets a 2010 or 2011 glass? Sellers usually advertise them as fitting 2009, 2010 and 2011 models.
 
faffer said:
Been a while. I'd picked up up a fourth Imac (2011/3.4 i7/2g) with faults, no usb and left hand screen dim. Had it running with bluetooth keyboard etc, seemed to work okay screen would be better longer it was on. Had the house to myself for a few days so got all the bits out for a play. Tore down No4 put the gpu into No2, it worked for a while until it started rebooting every few minutes, continued to replace the power board then the cpu, tried different memory, still wants to reboot itself, I'm now thinking it may be the systemboard. Resurrected No3 put its gpu back in and one of the power boards, got that back up and running, although it reports "no hardware found" on the wifi, (even tried the 3 connector board from the now completely stripped No4) don't know if its a missed connection somewhere. I've seen a replacement board for approx £5, might just try replacing it. If nothing else, for me, it has removed the taboo of stripping and rebuilding the Imac, on the plus side, I have two 2010 Imacs one fully working and the other working albeit minus its wifi.
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i feel your pain.

and while it may seem like buying/repairing/frankensteining old iMacs is the righteous and environmentally conscious thing to do in order to save 'perfectly working/usable' hardware...

at some point you gotta look back and think... damn, i should have just bought a modern, fully functional iMac.

It's not too late.
 
HoreaG said:
How does one know if he gets a 2010 or 2011 glass? Sellers usually advertise them as fitting 2009, 2010 and 2011 models.
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The 2010 and 2011 models I've dealt with have different part numbers on the glasses, although they are physically interchangeable. A previous reply in this thread, indicates it may be to do with the aerial positions.
 

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erihp said:
i feel your pain.

and while it may seem like buying/repairing/frankensteining old iMacs is the righteous and environmentally conscious thing to do in order to save 'perfectly working/usable' hardware...

at some point you gotta look back and think... damn, i should have just bought a modern, fully functional iMac.

It's not too late.
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Totally agree. At this time, for what I use the Imac for (email/browsing/occasional work online training modules) I'm not sure what benefit a more modern machine would be but it will no doubt happen at some point. Money wise I'm probably about even (on the cost of two working 2010 Imacs), which has been spent in small amounts over a period of months. Just had a thought, I've still got my original 2009 21.5 (before I got the 27" bug) which is worthless but may have the same wifi card. Could even have 16gb of usable memory. Re the 2011, I'll not throw anything out just yet, who knows, No5 may be out there waiting.
 
faffer said:
Totally agree. At this time, for what I use the Imac for (email/browsing/occasional work online training modules) I'm not sure what benefit a more modern machine would be but it will no doubt happen at some point. Money wise I'm probably about even (on the cost of two working 2010 Imacs), which has been spent in small amounts over a period of months. Just had a thought, I've still got my original 2009 21.5 (before I got the 27" bug) which is worthless but may have the same wifi card. Could even have 16gb of usable memory. Re the 2011, I'll not throw anything out just yet, who knows, No5 may be out there waiting.
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one option to redeem yourself/make you feel better after you burn out from the endless reassembly and testing cycle...

gut um and add an lcd driver board to make them standalone monitors.
 
erihp said:
one option to redeem yourself/make you feel better after you burn out from the endless reassembly and testing cycle...

gut um and add an lcd driver board to make them standalone monitors.
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Pulled the 2010 (No3) apart and found I had missed the wifi board cable connection. Reinstated the original two connector board and now have working wifi, so another small bonus.
 
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