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

[jowaju]

Last few pics

Forgot to mention sleep / wake work perfectly on every MacOS version tried as well as Windows with no extra steps or patches required.

 

[lolvince]

Hello,
dumb question, can an mDP to HDMI / VGA / DVI adapter work?

 

[snam11]

on my 27" 2010 and k2100m i've tested dp to vga,and dp to hmi/vga/dvi, everything works fine

 

[nekton1]

Here is a close-up picture of what I got out the unit from 42 sold on Ebay

It does not look like a 660M and Nick's K2100M flashed onto it without any problems.

You can compare both cards one by one here:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M Specs

NVIDIA GK107, 950 MHz, 384 Cores, 32 TMUs, 16 ROPs, 2048 MB GDDR5, 1250 MHz, 128 bit

www.techpowerup.com

and

NVIDIA Quadro K2100M Specs

NVIDIA GK106S, 667 MHz, 576 Cores, 48 TMUs, 16 ROPs, 2048 MB GDDR5, 752 MHz, 128 bit

www.techpowerup.com

They do not even have the same form factor. If you are sure to have the smaller K2100M than you need a clip programmer to do the overwrite. I do not know if one can force the Nvidia flash software to ignore the device ID.
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Sorry for my misleading first hint.

I just put the current status together:
iMac 2011, LCD is working with the original Apple ATI GPU, doesn't work now with two different 770M flashed with Nick's BIOS. remote login and screen sharing works.

Now we have two not working 770M and the only thing I can ask you: Have you the chance to check this cards in another system, even a PC laptop?

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The code on the GPU chip is N15P-Q3-A1
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Here is a close-up picture of what I got out the unit from 42 sold on Ebay

It does not look like a 660M and Nick's K2100M flashed onto it without any problems.

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The code on the GPU chip is N15P-Q3-A1

I do have the original ROM dump

Here it is:

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Here is a close-up picture of what I got out the unit from 42 sold on Ebay

It does not look like a 660M and Nick's K2100M flashed onto it without any problems.

If you read the code from the GPU you can identify the card from outside: N15P-Q3-A1 is chip used on the K2100M - the net will tell you the same

 

[Dmitrii Fedotov]

Hello everyone!
I ordered a gtx 780 m on imac 2011 27. I tried to study the whole article, but still did not fully understand the course of action.
Can you tell me in simple language how to get the boot screen back on my imac?
Please!

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hello everyone!
I ordered a gtx 780 m on imac 2011 27. I tried to study the whole article, but still did not fully understand the course of action.
Can you tell me in simple language how to get the boot screen back on my imac?
Please!

We are trying hard to create a better documentation, but we cannot give you one just here. Basically you have to flash the @Nick [D]vB vBIOS onto the card before installing using a CH341A clip programmer or after installing using Nvidia flash software on windows or linux.

All three methods are described in detail in the posts of the authors and can be found following the links on page ONE if the thread. Sorry, this is a task needs some admin or programming experience and some hands to do the hardware installation and heat sink mod.

Using flashrom with the CH341A is well documented in the internet, too. The same applies for the nvflash software. We will not maintain a copy of this documentation here.

 

[nekton1]

Yes, I know it's a K2110M from the code—if we bought from the same place on eBay (Asendtech I think it was), I have no idea why you receved a 660M and not the K2100M or why the flasher software thinks it's a 660M. I used a ch341a programmer with chip clip on a RPi 4 to do the flash and it was uneventful.

If you read the code from the GPU you can identify the card from outside: N15P-Q3-A1 is chip used on the K2100M - the net will tell you the same

 

[passatgt]

I'm trying to get OpenCore to work, but i'm failing. K1100M + 2011 27". So i installed Catalina, works fine. Did not apply any extra kext(to make sleep work etc...), since it should be in OpenCore. So i restored the iMac OpenCore Loader to a flash drive, i can boot from it fine, but after selecting my boot drive, i can see the Apple logo for a while and then its just a black screen.

Without OpenCore, i can boot into Catalina normally, though only if i hold down option during boot and select a boot drive manually(otherwise i just get the same black screen).

Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[lolvince]

We are trying hard to create a better documentation, but we cannot give you one just here. Basically you have to flash the @Nick [D]vB vBIOS onto the card before installing using a CH341A clip programmer or after installing using Nvidia flash software on windows or linux..

is there a table?
it would be more practical to have all the information in a more readable way.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

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is there a table?
it would be more practical to have all the information in a more readable way.

You are welcome to create one and share it here Or go back to page one, there is a single question covering the complete topic "Q: Flash VBIOS? How do I do that?".

I'm trying to get OpenCore to work, but i'm failing. K2100M + 2011 27". So i installed Catalina, works fine. Did not apply any extra kext(to make sleep work etc...), since it should be in OpenCore. So i restored the iMac OpenCore Loader to a flash drive, i can boot from it fine, but after selecting my boot drive, i can see the Apple logo for a while and then its just a black screen.

Without OpenCore, i can boot into Catalina normally, though only if i hold down option during boot and select a boot drive manually(otherwise i just get the same black screen). And a PRAM zap before booting of OC was sometimes necessary...

Any ideas? Thanks!

Hi!

I assume you did a full install of 10.15.4. Before booting off the Catalina Loader please configure it according to the docs.
The three files from the subfolder in kexts (one PrivateFramework and two Extensions) have still to go to disk exactly the same way @highvoltage documented in his original post and you have check all the kexts in the OC having a Nvidia comment...
This is only necessary for 2011 models!!!

During the last 10 days I did this two times without any problems...

 

[Pao13]

@dosdude1 :
Hi dosdude, I'm running an iMac 27" 2011 with the GTX860 2GB.
Until Catalina 10.15.3 it was working perfectly with the Patcher from you....
But when I try to update to 10.15.4 with the Patcher 1.4.3 I have a black screen.
the created bootable HDD with the Patcher will not work at all.
when I try to boot from a created bootable HDD with the Patcher 1.3.- on 10.15.3 it works....
What can I do to get 10.15.4 on my iMac??

the solution to problem is dosdude?

 

[Mark Meretz]

On my iMac 21 '' with a flashed K2000M under Mojave runs perfectly without a boot screen.A picture is only available from macOS because then everything runs on mDP-4KHDMI and mDP-FHDHDMI.

At Catalina I only have a picture if I boot with "ALT pressed" otherwise no picture here runs when you start with ALT only the mDP-FHDHDMI but not the mDP-4KHDMI. And only picture when I boat with "ALT pressed". Can you solve this somehow?

Shouldn't I have a fully functional boot screen after flashing the vBios?

sorry for the bad google english

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

Hi Pascal, are you sure of this?

My WX4170 with GOP vBIOS gives me brightness control and a display and no boot screen without OpenCore AND boot screen and brightness control with OpenCore.

There is no need to re flash this card if I pull off my SD card and boot the iMac without the OpenCore settings.
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I put Opencore EFI folder on secondary drive EFI partition. Bless it. Rebooted into Windows10. Reflashed WX7100_GOP bios. Undo hardware backlight. Booted a few times with Opencore. Everything works. Then i did a PRAM reset. Computer booted, without bootscreen, to default hardrive with MacOS.
You are right, there's absolutely no need to flash back 580X_67W.
The lesson here is that is a very bad idea to put Opencore on the default EFI partition. It's safer on flash drive or secondary EFI partition, to be able to recover easily the system in case of Opencore misconguration.

 

[lolvince]

I put Opencore EFI folder on secondary drive EFI partition. Bless it. Rebooted into Windows10. Reflashed WX7100_GOP bios. Undo hardware backlight. Booted a few times with Opencore. Everything works. Then i did a PRAM reset. Computer booted, without bootscreen, to default hardrive with MacOS.
You are right, there's absolutely no need to flash back 580X_67W.
The lesson here is that is a very bad idea to put Opencore on the default EFI partition. It's safer on flash drive or secondary EFI partition, to be able to recover easily the system in case of Opencore misconguration.

ok so to answer my previous Post, the k2100 and the WX7100 must both be subjected to a flash of the bios, except that the WX7100 needs opencore. is it this?
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You are welcome to create one and share it here Or go back to page one, there is a single question covering the complete topic "Q: Flash VBIOS? How do I do that?".

I'm working on this, it also allows me to see if I have a good overall view, necessarily I will share it with you, and I hope it will help if possible.

 

[Conney]

Hi All...
due to lockdown I have now more time to fiddle with my faulty iMacs.
I have two non-working 21,5" from 2011. I have just received k2100m that I am planning to flash with Nick[D]vB's bios. That still leaves me with one iMac with faulty graphics.
There is an MXM 2.0 Radeon HD 5870 that I could get for equivalent of 15 EUR, which I believe is cheap, since mxm cards' prices are horrendous in Poland. This card comes from an old asus gaming laptop.
Big question is: would it be possible to flash it with an efi rom from PCI-E mac version of this card? And would it work flawlessly then? I mean bootscreen, dimming, etc.
(https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/86429/apple-hd5870-1024-100630).
Please forgive me if it is a dumb question - either way

 

[Ausdauersportler]

ok so to answer my previous Post, the k2100 and the WX7100 must both be subjected to a flash of the bios, except that the WX7100 needs opencore. is it this?

AMD WX41x0/WX7100 and Nvidia Quadro K2100M/K1100M both need OpenCore to have both boot screen with alt/option key and native brightness control.

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

ok so to answer my previous Post, the k2100 and the WX7100 must both be subjected to a flash of the bios, except that the WX7100 needs opencore. is it this?
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I'm working on this, it also allows me to see if I have a good overall view, necessarily I will share it with you, and I hope it will help if possible.

Just a quick update on OpenCore and the AMD cards. After lots of testing I finally worked out what was causing the driver error 43 in windows, it had nothing to do with signatures / checksums but was actually a problem with the display configuration, and fixing that got us TDM and native brightness control, no back-light mods required!

AMD Beta 4 roms are attached, they now all work with Windows installed in legacy MBR mode, but UEFI mode only works using a GOP vBIOS with the latest version of OpenCore. The higher wattage versions are faster but might not be stable on all systems. I included a 50W 560X version which might also work on WX 4130 / 4150 MXM-A cards, but probably only in the 2010 iMacs? (these cards are NOT detected in a 2011 27" iMac).

Remember there is more than one type of WX 4170 card, unfortunately I've now discovered that you can't just solder an EEPROM onto either of these cards, they are also missing a resistor network and other tiny components, so they won't work. But FlorisVN has found some of the working type on AliExpress which are ready for flashing.

AMD cards are complicated because in MacOS the frame-buffer "personality" is not just used to configure the display outputs but also tied to other things like brightness control / performance / power-management, which makes finding the right combination difficult. OpenCore & WhatEverGreen make life easier by giving us more control, as well as enabling features like HEVC (normally locked to specific models through SMBIOS / BoardID).

Although the Beta4 roms enable native brightness control, there is a catch:

[1] To enable brightness control and keep full performance in MacOS we use the generic "Radeon frame-buffer", but this seems to break High Sierra, causing a black screen during boot that is fixable using OpenCore / WEG or by connecting an external display. High Sierra users could just stick with Beta 3, which used the Salado framebuffer to restore performance but doesn't allow native brightness control. Beta 1 & 2 used the Longavi / Berbice frame-buffer which can work with native brightness control but also applied mobile power-gating that cripples performance in MacOS.

[2] Without help from OpenCore we can either have native brightness control OR the boot-screen, but not both. The back-light only turns on after a display driver has loaded, so to actually see the Apple boot-picker you would still need a back-light mod - which would obviously disconnect native brightness control. You could just use the boot-picker blindly, or wire a switch to the PWM line just to see it at boot time, but that is far from ideal...

However, thanks to great work by Startergo & Vit9696 we can now use OpenCore's GOP boot-picker instead, which also saves us having to do the boot-rom mod! These recent changes to OpenCore have delayed the release of the USB tool. Originally it was only intended to enable HEVC / SideCar for AMD and TDM & Native brightness control on some of the Nvidia cards, but now integrates several other fixes. Thanks to a lot of hard work by Highvoltage12v (and others) we are making good progress with it and should have something ready soon...



Edited, again, for clarity..?

No, you won't get a picture on the stock vBIOS without a back-light mod,

AMD users should flash the GOP vBIOS attached, you can do it from windows.

Then use OpenCore to get boot-screen and brightness control with no other mods!

AMDVBFlash / ATI ATIFlash 5.0.567 Download

AMD AMDVBFlash is used to flash the graphics card BIOS. The version released by ATI was called ATIFlash or just WinFlash. It supports all AMD Radeo

www.techpowerup.com

Download: iMac OpenCore Loader.dmg


FEATURES:

[1] Native brightness control on Quadro K1100M & K2100M cards.

(more cards may be added in the future through vBIOS updates)

[2] Target Display Mode on Quadro K1100M & K2100M cards.

[3] Real-time hardware monitoring using HWMonitor app:

Nvidia GPU Die Temp + GPU, VRAM & CPU core Frequencies.

[4] Reduced boot-screen delay, no more random black-screen boots.

[5] OpenCore + rEFInd boot-pickers on AMD cards with NO MODS!

(allows bootscreen & native brightness control simultaneously)

[6] SideCar + Video acceleration on new AMD cards (Mojave+)

Huge H264 & HEVC video encoding speed improvements in FCPX etc

Playback of DRM protected streaming content (Netflix 4K etc)


2011 iMacs only -

[7] UEFI Windows: Sound fix for HDAudio code 12 driver error,

can also fix some ThunderBolt eGPU resource issues in Windows.

(Enable DSDT in ACPI section of the OpenCore configuration tool)

[8] Mojave & Catalina: Integration of SandyBridge iGPU Kexts

required for the AirPlay + Sleep + GVA QuickSync video fixes

Catalina needs IOSurface.kext replacing FIRST, more details here:

2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade

EDIT: 7/28/20 Please download the newest Lilu/WhateverGreen kexts from Github, they constantly change. EDIT: 4/17/20 An additional AppleIntelSNBGraphics.kext has been added to the pack to include board ID for iMac Pro/AMD-WX Series Config.plist. You can now have working sleep when your board ID...

forums.macrumors.com

INSTALLATION:

Restore the image to an SD card or USB stick, I do not recommend installing to a non-removable drive. If using an AMD card show hidden files and extract the AMD config.plist file inside the /EFI/OC/ folder. Set the "Catalina Loader" drive as the default boot disk in system preferences or by using Ctrl+Enter from the Apple boot-picker. If you have problems booting delete any Lilu or Whatevergreen kexts from S/L/E, to disable OpenCore just remove the drive and do an NVRAM reset.


WARNING:

Congratulations, you are now running a Hackintosh! I have done some basic safety checks but I can't test everything, there is a non-zero risk that something will go spectacularly wrong. I accept NO responsibility if Apple ban your accounts or if your iMac blows-up, wipes all your data, and injures your cat... Make sure you have current back-ups of all your drives, and use the RomTool to make a back-up of your iMacs BootRom so it can be restored in case of corruption (very unlikely, but possible). Configuration tools are included, be careful - here be dragons!


Based on "Catalina Loader" by Rastafabi.

Thanks to Highvoltage12v & Ausdauersportler for testing.

Full credit to all the original developers & those who shared essential information.



Better late than never...

You need to flash a bios in both cases.

For Ati cards:
Opencore is needed to have a bootscreen (bootpicker) with a GOP bios (WX7100_GOP). -->native brightness control.

Non GOP bios: Hardware backlight mod + 580X_67W:
--> Opencore not necessary.
--> Apple bootscreen
--> hardware backlight control (DyingLight for instance)

 

[Mark Meretz]

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You are welcome to create one and share it here Or go back to page one, there is a single question covering the complete topic "Q: Flash VBIOS? How do I do that?".


Hi!

I assume you did a full install of 10.15.4. Before booting off the Catalina Loader please configure it according to the docs.
The three files from the subfolder in kexts (one PrivateFramework and two Extensions) have still to go to disk exactly the same way @highvoltage documented in his original post and you have check all the kexts in the OC having a Nvidia comment...
This is only necessary for 2011 models!!!

During the last 10 days I did this two times without any problems...

Where can I find the 3 files?

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

@Mark Meretz

EDIT: 4/17/20 An additional AppleIntelSNBGraphics.kext has been added to the pack to include board ID for iMac Pro/AMD-WX Series Config.plist. You can now have working sleep when your board ID is changed to 7BA5B2D9E42DDD94 to enable HEVC.

I am creating a guide linked to the first page to show how to reinstall HD3000 sleep kext as well as bring back Airplay and intel Quicksync rendering. This guide is exclusive to 2011 iMacs Running Mojave or Catalina.

1. download Kext Utility from here http://cvad-mac.narod.ru/index/0-4 download Hackintool from here http://headsoft.com.au/download/mac/Hackintool.zip download and unzip my files at the bottom of this post for Mojave or Catalina.
2. Move files to the desktop, (Catalina only) Open Hackintool, move to the Tools tab and click on the GateKeeper icon, enter your password and Finder should restart, this unlocks the System Partition. View attachment 885972
3. Unzip the Mojave or Catalina files and unzip them to the Desktop. Drag Kext Utility into the same folder as the kexts. Drag the kexts onto Kext Utility, they will install but Kext utility will give a timeout error in Catalina, this is normal. You can reboot your iMac now, Sleep/Airplay should work. View attachment 885982 View attachment 885983 Part 2: Enabling Intel QuickSync for rendering using the IGPU.​
4. Since Mac OS Mojave, Apple changed the "AppleGVA.framework to longer be compatible with Sandybridge CPU's. To reenable QuickSync we have to reinstall a Private framework from High Sierra. The 'AppleGVA.framework' included works with both Mojave and Catalina.
5. (Catalina) Use Hackintool to unlock the System partition as shown earlier
6. navigate to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ take the unzipped AppleGVA.framework and drag it into a blank area of the PrivateFrameworks folder. click "Replace" from the Finder popup. View attachment 885986
7. Open terminal and enter the following:

   sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AppleGVA.framework THEN ENTER
   sudo chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AppleGVA.framework

View attachment 886317
You can reboot now.

Optional you can download Mac X video recorder and check to make sure intel QuickSync is enabled.
View attachment 886318

Spoiler: Original post

Okay,
I have figured out the slow boot issue in Catalina and allowing the HD3000 kexts to be installed along the "AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB" that was mentioned earlier. Turns out you need to modify the IOSURFACE.kext file (File from @dosdude1 patcher, all I did was replace it within the kext) and install the patched iosurface.kext with the HD3000 kexts. Now I have a normal boot time and proper sleep/wake function.

I also added the AppleGraphicsPowerManagement.kext from the patcher, I have not done any testing yet if this kext has any improvement on MXM cards, but it's a newer version than the one from High Sierra 110.23.46 vs. 110.23.37

EDIT: looks like the AppleMCCSControl.kext should be added along with IOSurface.kext to prevent artifacts in Safari.

To install I use "Hackintool" to unlock the Catalina System partition to install, then drag all the files on top of Kext Utility to install. Alternatively you can open terminal and type


I also added Mojave proper sleep kexts to this post as well.

Catalina Sleep Kexts still work as of 10.15.2, if performing a software update it is necessary to reinstall AppleMCCSControl.kext. Otherwise webpages on Safari won't load right.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Where can I find the 3 files?

On the OpenCore image in the one and only subfolder of EFI/OC/kexts ....
Since you do not need OpenCore go with the answer Pascal already posted. The info has been copied from page one and the very best: I missed this too on my first attempt to install a K2100M.
?

 

[jborko]

is there a table?
it would be more practical to have all the information in a more readable way.

I have a basic one for my purpose, but I am expanding it to be a very comprehensive one on the topic. (possibly replace a lot of questions and/or discussions). Will share as soon as I will have it complete... Although it will be nothing more than a tabular representation of the 1st wiki post and some of the findings in the linked posts in there.

 

[passatgt]

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You are welcome to create one and share it here Or go back to page one, there is a single question covering the complete topic "Q: Flash VBIOS? How do I do that?".


Hi!

I assume you did a full install of 10.15.4. Before booting off the Catalina Loader please configure it according to the docs.
The three files from the subfolder in kexts (one PrivateFramework and two Extensions) have still to go to disk exactly the same way @highvoltage documented in his original post and you have check all the kexts in the OC having a Nvidia comment...
This is only necessary for 2011 models!!!

During the last 10 days I did this two times without any problems...

Thanks, i can boot with OpenCore now, but another issue: i can see the brightness slider, but i only have picture at max brightness. If i reduce the slider even just a tiny bit, it all goes black. Any ideas?

 

[MacGero]

the solution to problem is dosdude?

who else could help me?

 

[NOTNlCE]

who else could help me?

If you have not already done so, it may be more fruitful to ask your question over in the Official Catalina Patcher Thread. I would think something changed in 10.15.4 or the latest patcher that is causing your issue, rather than a GPU issue.