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iM 4,1-14,4 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade
- Thread starter MichaelDT
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I'd be curious to know if anyone succeeds on a 27". I did buy a 680M off ebay last year, but the machine would not boot with the card. No idea if it was a firmware problem, bad card, or incompatibility, since I don't have a PC laptop with a compatible slot.
My understanding is the 680M and 780M are very similar - maybe just slight frequency differences.
My understanding is the 680M and 780M are very similar - maybe just slight frequency differences.
I actually read your thread during my research. It sounds like having a second monitor or windows would have probably allowed you to troubleshoot your black screen. More often than not I have only the second hdmi display working while the iMac display refuses to turn on. Selecting Mac OSX from Windows and shutting down is the only way to 100% guarantee the iMac internal display will turn on.
In terms of upgrading your iMac, the only discernible difference between the 780M and 680M is that the 780M is twice the price. A 780m would be a great candidate for a EFI flash, however. If you managed to dump the ROM from a 2013 iMac with a 780M you could potentially get a fully supported bug free graphics upgrade.
However if you're looking at spending $850 on a top of the line card today consider that you're gonna hit a wall with your CPU upgrade possibilities.... as nobody has been able to successfully upgrade to an Ivy Bridge with these iMacs.
If you do a lot of different types of gaming you're going to feel the limit of these locked Sandy bridge CPU's ( I already feel it with my i7 2600S while running dolphin, except when setting affinity to force turbo boost)
In fact, most 680Ms on eBay are still priced around $650. Had I not found one for $360 I would not have proceeded with this upgrade. It was already seemed slightly irrational in terms of power per dollar considering it is a 2012 mobile card...
Look at it this way... the jump from my Radeon HD 6750m (512mb gram) and a 680M (4gb gram) in inexplicable. It's night and day, its a whole new world, its amazing. Super worth it in terms if the amount of games I can now play at MAX settings. I am confident I have greatly extended the gaming life of my iMac.
The jump from a 680M to a 780m is less noticeable... less worth it to be honest.
The 780M is a hell of a card, but if I was planning on spending that much money on a graphics card I would be worried about it being bottlenecked by future games. I would rather build a "hackintosh" with an i5 - 4670K ($230) with like two 770's ($850) or something. Its wayyy more bang for your buck.
Or honestly just sell your 2011 iMac add the graphics card budget and get the newer model. Just my two cents.
tl;dr If you have the money for that kind of (mobile) GPU don't waste it on a risky iMac upgrade, build a much more powerful pc/hackintosh instead.
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Dear Michael, I'm attempting the same upgrade you did... Please , advise is appreciated.... I bought the Clevo gtx 680 and somewhere around I read that it is a straight installation... Can you confirm that? I mean, I'm not talking about the phisical installation , but the software one... I can't find the place anymore but overthere they were saying that osx 10.9.2 has built in drivers to read any Nvidia hardware... Apart than that, do you have any suggestion?
I still didn't receive the card so I'm colletting as much information as possible... Thanks for your help!
Hi GmacUser! Pls confirm that the 680m worked straight on on OSX?
Thanks for your advice!
😀 Hi! Thanks for your support!!! 🙂 you are right, the upgrade bug hit me few days ago after successfully completing the ssd dual drive upgrade!!! I was scaried but after holding my breath a while I did it and I'm now double satisfied... For the operation itself and for the performance my imac is now granting me... So here comes the bug!!! Blue ray to replace superdrive, up to 32 gb Ram 4tb internal drive and what was missing? You are right, the video card!!! It is supposed to be here the day after tomorrow... I hope that before then gmacuser and michaelDT will join again the discussion to bring in their experience... I will keep you posted nevertheless on progress ... Wish me luck and cross your fingers for me pls! 🙂 as mine will be veeeery busy! 🙂
Update
So I did it.... today.... imac won't boot with the 680m installed... chime ok and then black screen...no possibility to log in with a remote desktop... card fits perfectly though, same size.
Installation process is not particularly difficult so i'm willing to see if I find a workaround and try again with the install in a few days...
Does anybody think that installing the nvidia drivers could solve the issue?
Thanks for advice!
So I did it.... today.... imac won't boot with the 680m installed... chime ok and then black screen...no possibility to log in with a remote desktop... card fits perfectly though, same size.
Installation process is not particularly difficult so i'm willing to see if I find a workaround and try again with the install in a few days...
Does anybody think that installing the nvidia drivers could solve the issue?
Thanks for advice!
I never even got a chime on mine so I can't be certain, but my understanding is 10.9.* would support that card of out the box - I suspect recent 10.8.* versions would as well.
You could try running safe mode and/or plug in a external monitor...
I'm on mavericks and about support , yes , I also read the same thing ( that's why I bought it!!! 🙂 )...
Btw... I had not only one chime, but multiples as the Imac was keeping on rebooting... I attach some photos just for curious fellows ...In the first you see the comparison between the two cards and on the second you see the gtx sitting in place...
the good news is that now I'm pretty confident with imacs tear down!!!! ;D
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ArthurWellsley
macrumors member
2009 imac
I have an older imac.
It is Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8435 @ 3.06 GHz
Installed Memory (RAM) 4.00GB
the video card is
Nvidia GeForce GT 130
I would like to improve the graphics performance in boot camp while playing windows games.
Any advice as to the best route?
I have an older imac.
It is Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8435 @ 3.06 GHz
Installed Memory (RAM) 4.00GB
the video card is
Nvidia GeForce GT 130
I would like to improve the graphics performance in boot camp while playing windows games.
Any advice as to the best route?
2600
I see that the OP has a i7 2600 (not s) in your iMac 21.5 "
this can be?
because I got an offer from a i7 2600 for $ 150, while the i7 2600s I get over $300
Will it happen something if I will get the 2600?
(sorry for my bad english)
I see that the OP has a i7 2600 (not s) in your iMac 21.5 "
this can be?
because I got an offer from a i7 2600 for $ 150, while the i7 2600s I get over $300
Will it happen something if I will get the 2600?
(sorry for my bad english)
I screwed up, I ordered a GTX 675m instead of a 675mx.
Any chance to get my iMac 2011 to boot even with black screen nor using Windows ?
Thanks,
Any chance to get my iMac 2011 to boot even with black screen nor using Windows ?
Thanks,
MartinAppleGuy
macrumors 68020
Hi there, to be honest, you can't game well on either a Core 2 Duo or the old Nvidia card. I know this may sound a bit silly, but just get a new iMac (either the 21.5" with the Nvidia Geforce GT 750m w/ 1Gb of GDDR5 VRAM, or one of the 27" iMac's...).
It will works for 10.6 and 10.7
In 10.8 and superior you have to remove a kext file to prevent the CPU Sensor to load.
Unfortunately I can remember the exact name, something like AppleCPUsensor.kext ...
I have put back my I5 2500S back because the performance boost doesn't worth the annoyment.
----------
Tested, the iMac power on, fans run for a couple of second and stop immediately. Screen doesn't light.
I think it's just the EEPROM doing some kind of GPU UEFI support check that naturally failed because the 675m is Fermi (noUEFI) instead of 675mx which is Kepler (UEFI).
As anyone reported a nVidia Kepler upgrade on iMac 2011 with something else than a 680m which is still pricy?
Hello, very interesting thread. I hope you guys will update again.
I have a 27" mid 2011 with the 6970M.
First of all is it worth upgrading ? I'm thinking about an upgrade for less than 400$.
What would be my best choice in terms of price/performance/compatibility ? Is the GTX 775M an option ?
Since the latest iMac have it built-in can I expect a perfect integration ?
Where is the best place to order (eBay ? - I live in Switzerland).
Thanks.
I have a 27" mid 2011 with the 6970M.
First of all is it worth upgrading ? I'm thinking about an upgrade for less than 400$.
What would be my best choice in terms of price/performance/compatibility ? Is the GTX 775M an option ?
Since the latest iMac have it built-in can I expect a perfect integration ?
Where is the best place to order (eBay ? - I live in Switzerland).
Thanks.
jblagden
macrumors 65816
It's not possible yet, but maybe soon
It is not yet possible to use an external graphics card, at least not affordably nor without having to boot into Windows, but with Thunderbolt-aware drivers which would also allow hot-plugging, it may one day be possible. In fact Village Tronic and Silverstone are each working on affordable eGPU enclosures, which I hope theyll be able to begin selling this year, especially since theyve been working on them for a year or so and many people(myself included) really want an affordable eGPU enclosure. The other problem besides drivers is that Intel doesn't want this sort of thing to be affordable. Although, i have made a petition, to try to get them to give Silverstone and Village Tronic the licenses they need: https://www.change.org/petitions/int...gpu-enclosures
It is not yet possible to use an external graphics card, at least not affordably nor without having to boot into Windows, but with Thunderbolt-aware drivers which would also allow hot-plugging, it may one day be possible. In fact Village Tronic and Silverstone are each working on affordable eGPU enclosures, which I hope theyll be able to begin selling this year, especially since theyve been working on them for a year or so and many people(myself included) really want an affordable eGPU enclosure. The other problem besides drivers is that Intel doesn't want this sort of thing to be affordable. Although, i have made a petition, to try to get them to give Silverstone and Village Tronic the licenses they need: https://www.change.org/petitions/int...gpu-enclosures
My 4850 has just packed up in my imac 27 EMC2309 and i am able to get my hands on a 6770 but its from a imac 21.It is being sold without the heatsink.Will this fit in the 27 inch imac?
i have an iMac 21.5 with 6750m and i want to upgrade it with http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Nvidi...raphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item41824b1822
it is possible?
it is possible?
I haven't got a 765m to test but I do have access to dell 770m & 780m. I am going to attempt to put one in my 2011 21" this week
flopticalcube
macrumors G4
Given that the 770M uses 40W more than a 6750M, does the PSU have enough headroom? I am thinking about upgrading my daughter's 2011 to a new GPU and deciding if it will cope with a 770M or if a 765M would be better. The i5-2400S might bottleneck with a 770M anyhow. Too bad the 3570S or the 3770S can't be used as then there would be no bottleneck worries. Excellent work to those who attempted this. The 2011 is truly the last upgradeable iMac.
Hey guys, i'm reading this forum for a while but i never had the need to register, since now. Because you all did a great job I think there's someone who can help me.
Today i upgraded my iMac 2010 model from:
Core i5-680 => Core i7-880
2TB Fusion Drive => 3TB Fusion Drive
Radeon HD 6970M (upgraded from 5750) => Geforce GTX 780M
I followed the guides from iFixit and this thread. Everything was running very well. I installed my backup from my Time Machine without any issues. Okay, i lost my initial boot screen, but I knew that and that's okay. Somehow I missed stuff like putting the CPU temperature sensor back to the logic board, so I have to disassemble my iMac to push it in.
But now the monitor stays black. The startup sound appears but then… nothing is showing up. It do before my disassemble. I knew that the login screen is there, because if I type something and press, I can hear the beep of enter the wrong password. When I type the correct password my Mac goes on.
Btw: No problems with my old graphics card.
Do anyone have a tip for me?
Today i upgraded my iMac 2010 model from:
Core i5-680 => Core i7-880
2TB Fusion Drive => 3TB Fusion Drive
Radeon HD 6970M (upgraded from 5750) => Geforce GTX 780M
I followed the guides from iFixit and this thread. Everything was running very well. I installed my backup from my Time Machine without any issues. Okay, i lost my initial boot screen, but I knew that and that's okay. Somehow I missed stuff like putting the CPU temperature sensor back to the logic board, so I have to disassemble my iMac to push it in.
But now the monitor stays black. The startup sound appears but then… nothing is showing up. It do before my disassemble. I knew that the login screen is there, because if I type something and press, I can hear the beep of enter the wrong password. When I type the correct password my Mac goes on.
Btw: No problems with my old graphics card.
Do anyone have a tip for me?