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

[kuoshen]

@deniss1711
-Good point about the K3000M timings, I will de-tune them slightly to get less crashes. There will of course be some experimentation to get the best scenario, but I will work on them. I've already updated the ROM to lesser clocks speeds.

@Schprecher
- You are correct, addressing higher than 2048Mb on the K3000M causes a crash. An example is fullscreen playback of 1080p videos on youtube or any other OpenGL games. I'm hunting for the cause of this misreading of the vram.

@MirComputers
-I agree 1900Mhz seems more reasonable. Quadro cards are different in their tolerance than the GTX cards. So yes, it takes so experimenting to get them right. I've never been a big fan of overclocking mem vram. Unfortunately, if we increase MHz, we need a little corresponding boost in voltage. Again, everyone's recipe and results for this will be different.

@kuoshen
- I'm not surprised that Eplida based K2100M have faulty readings. The original bios wasn't designed for them! I am creating a K2100M_Eplida based rom soon for testing. Please check your About screen and report to us what it shows. I would like some volunteers who own a K2100M-eplida card to test it.
View attachment 1689726

Thanks @nikey22
Super! Happy to test it.

Here is my About screen for the K2100M with Elpida chips. Also, let me know if you want my ioreg entries for IOAccelerator if that helps. For the card reported vramUsedBytes + vramFreeBytes = 1073283072 bytes. Little less than 1GB - normal?

Cheers

 

[Schprecher]

@Schprecher
- You are correct, addressing higher than 2048Mb on the K3000M causes a crash. An example is fullscreen playback of 1080p videos on youtube or any other OpenGL games. I'm hunting for the cause of this misreading of the vram.

Nikey, i think for K3000M need to be made a two different bios for VRAM ID (H5GQ2H24BFR) and (H5GQ2H24AFR)
AFR and BFR memory id different.

one bios for two version card will not working.

 

[StephN999]

Bonjour,

Has anyone tested firmware that upgrades the RX460 or RX560 cards from 896 Shaders and 56 TMU to 1024 Shaders and 64 TMU?

I also saw that the GOP BIOS does not have the latest update (AMD GOP 1.60.0.15.50 vs 1.69.0.15.50) The EG BIOS does have the latest, I don't know if it can help but I wanted to clarify this.

Enclosed is the most recent RX560 DELL VBIOS I found with update GOP and the same one with shaders and MTU unlocked, WARNING! You need a patched driver for Windows users and I don't know if it will work under macOS either.

Bonne journée.

 

[internetzel]

Has anyone tested firmware that upgrades the RX460 or RX560 cards from 896 Shaders and 56 TMU to 1024 Shaders and 64 TMU?

Yes, the WX4130 normally has 640 shaders enabled and the 896 available on the WX4150 can be unlocked the way you did in the BIOS you posted. The latest WX4130 BIOS versions linked in the first post should have the unlock applied, if I remember correctly.
However, only the WX4170 has all 1024 shaders available in hardware. The BIOS mod can't seem to unlock more than 896 shaders.

I also saw that the GOP BIOS does not have the latest update (AMD GOP 1.60.0.15.50 vs 1.69.0.15.50) The EG BIOS does have the latest, I don't know if it can help but I wanted to clarify this.

I had tested newer GOPs and they worked - however I didn't see any benefit of updating the BIOSes. After all the GOP isn't used any longer once the OS loads a graphics driver.
An EG BIOS however doesn't contain an AMD GOP at all - instead it contains an Apple EG driver, eventually complemented by the Apple EFI drivers "CoreEG2" and "EDIDParser" (that way a boot rom firmware mod wouldn't be necessary).

 

[StephN999]

Hello,

Thanks for your answers, as I'm not sure if it works with my 2011 iMac, I decided to take the lead just in case.

this is what GOPupd tells me for the EG BIOS:
So I don't know what to say.

***************************************************************
***                Extracting with GOPupd...                ***
***************************************************************

AMD GOP 1.69.0.15.50  LibBuild ----  Dated: May 23 2019 05:48:42

AMD_Build 2196  AMD_ChangeList 1786616  GOP BIOS_IDTF 0xDEADBEEF

Most likely signed by: Microsoft Corporation UEFI CA 2011

Machine Code   = x64

Checksum CRC32 = 3B62F1AF

Note: The GOP file is not present in my database.

      You can help me by reporting it.

You may have a broken EFI image!

PE Checksum = 1F978 (Should be 25A33). Image is most likely corrupted.

---------------------------------------------------------------

***************************************************************
***                Processing with Python...                ***
***************************************************************

You already have the latest available GOP!

I was even tempted to fix the PE Checksum but I don't know if it would change anything, at least maybe for Windows users who would also want to use it.

Edit: if I've done his research and asked questions, it's just that I'm afraid the card won't work in my machine because from what I've read it's the lottery, so I thought that maybe a GOP update of the Graphics Card and or an IME update of the iMac firmware might be helpful, obviously it's just ideas, certainly not a rethink of the work that's already been done.

 

[m0bil]

K3100M - Hynix GDDR5 RAM Die Generation Variants​

There are at least 2 different K3100M Memory configurations floating out there for the Hynix MemoryVendorID

When I initially created the K3100M rom, I didn't realize that this existed. Then many people started to get the white screen failures. In my Post - Oct 18th, 2020 - I was able to finally create a working ROM for this type of failure.
<post 10,293>

The 2 varieties for the memory types are:
H5GQ2H24AFR - Hynix 1st Generation die - VDD 1.5V
H5GC2H24BFR - Hynix 2nd Generation die - VDD 1.35V

As pointed out by many here, the "BFR" based RAM chips are incompatible with the AFR rom. So I have created an entry in the original K3100M post to now include 2 ROMs - one for the H5GQ2H24AFR Ram chips and the H5GC2H24BFR Ram chips.

When you purchase a K3100M card, please look carefully at the RAM type and download the appropriate ROM.

Since doing this, @Schprecher discovered a hardware modification that could be made to the 2nd generation die cards that would allow them to interact with the 1st generation bios. This turns out to be a good discovery and was recently proven by @gnommak as mentioned above.

If you have a card that has Samsung or Eplida RAM chips, please send me your original BIOS rom and I'll see what I can do. But I don't think these exist.

So it appears we have 2 solutions to the K3100M white screen problem - hardware vs. software, both seem to work! Excellent work to all involved.

K3100M ROMs

Great work! Is it possible this ram variants can affect other similar cards like the 780M?

I have one 780M (green card, came with bios 80.04.AF.00.03) as in here:

Spoiler: Card GeForce GTX 780M info

NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.414.0)
Simplified Version For OEM Only
Adapter: GeForce GTX 780M (10DE,119F,1028,05AA) H:--:NRM S:00,B:01,D:00,F:00

Identifying EEPROM...
EEPROM ID (C2,2012) : MX MX25L2005 2.7-3.6V 2048Kx1S, page
Reading adapter firmware image...
IFR Data Size : 1004 bytes
IFR CRC32 : 44BFB4F2
IFR Image Size : 1024 bytes
IFR Image CRC32 : 22288A43
IFR Subsystem ID : 1028-05AA
Image Size : 165376 bytes
Version : 80.04.AF.00.03
~CRC32 : 8DEF8834
Image Hash : 96E5E7B8C025E0BC361DE0CCAB1162C5
Subsystem ID : 1028-05AA
Hierarchy ID : Normal Board
Chip SKU : 750
Project : 2053-0001
CDP : N/A
Build Date : 04/16/13
Modification Date : 04/18/13
UEFI Support : Yes
UEFI Version : 0x1001C (Apr 10 2013 @ 15488244 )
UEFI Variant Id : 0x0000000000000104 ( GK1xx MXM )
UEFI Signer(s) : Microsoft Corporation UEFI CA 2011
InfoROM Version : N/A
InfoROM Backup Exist : NO
License Placeholder : Absent
GPU Mode : N/A

I have noticed board layout and PN is exactly the same as K3100M (board PN 180-12053-1002-a02), and has memory chips H5GC2H24BFR.

I have flashed it with the 780M_BR2.ROM, card posts ok and mac gets 4 green board leds lit, but when Catalina starts to load the mac reboots (trying it on a 27 inch 2011, got nothing else to try).

I had given up on the card until I have an older mac to test, but when I read the K3100 memory variants I wonder if this could also happen with the 780Ms... or maybe the bios already takes that into account and I'm just talking nonsense

 

[internetzel]

Hello,

Thanks for your answers, as I'm not sure if it works with my 2011 iMac, I decided to take the lead just in case.

this is what GOPupd tells me for the EG BIOS:
So I don't know what to say.

***************************************************************
***                Extracting with GOPupd...                ***
***************************************************************

AMD GOP 1.69.0.15.50  LibBuild ----  Dated: May 23 2019 05:48:42

AMD_Build 2196  AMD_ChangeList 1786616  GOP BIOS_IDTF 0xDEADBEEF

Most likely signed by: Microsoft Corporation UEFI CA 2011

Machine Code   = x64

Checksum CRC32 = 3B62F1AF

Note: The GOP file is not present in my database.

      You can help me by reporting it.

You may have a broken EFI image!

PE Checksum = 1F978 (Should be 25A33). Image is most likely corrupted.

---------------------------------------------------------------

***************************************************************
***                Processing with Python...                ***
***************************************************************

You already have the latest available GOP!

I was even tempted to fix the PE Checksum but I don't know if it would change anything, at least maybe for Windows users who would also want to use it.

Edit: if I've done his research and asked questions, it's just that I'm afraid the card won't work in my machine because from what I've read it's the lottery, so I thought that maybe a GOP update of the Graphics Card and or an IME update of the iMac firmware might be helpful, obviously it's just ideas, certainly not a rethink of the work that's already been done.

GOPupd seems to expect an AMD GOP where there isn't any.

Unfortunately it's not a matter of the VBIOS whether the iMac will boot or not when the card is installed. Best way to exclude problems with the VBIOS is to clear the VBIOS flash EEPROM (that would be to flash a VBIOS that's just all 0xFF bytes).
That way the EFI firmware has nothing to load from the graphics card and hence cannot fail to execute an incompatible VBIOS. Obviously you'll not have any type of boot screen that way, but you should be able to remotely log in to Windows, macOS or Linux (has to already be enabled and set up properly of course).

 

[jay508]

Hi Roman,

long time no see. But did you really read the post @nikey22 made. All these problems are documented there. @passatgt posted recently a small app to fix the color problem. The BIOS problem (K3100M base) has to be solved by the BIOS makers here. It is a small wonder that I works...

Happy reading, there is some to catch up...

Hi @Ausdauersportler I didn't see where there is a small program shared by @passatgt about k3100m to solve the color depth problem on that page. Thank you

 

[passatgt]

Hi @Ausdauersportler I didn't see where there is a small program shared by @passatgt about k3100m to solve the color depth problem on that page. Thank you

#11,181

 

[Ausdauersportler]

#11,181

Yes, first post, FAQ, Q14 - but why I am writing this here....

 

[vinirico]

Hello everyone!

I successfully upgraded my 21.5'' iMac with a K2100M and replaced that old bastard card.

First of all, I want to thank for the great effort for all the people involved in this project! You guys are amazing.

Uploaded the test results and found out that for me, in MacOS Catalina, the benchmarks for some reason performed quite below the average, specifically on GeekBench5. I would get a score of 2500 on HS vs 1500 CL on metal.

Is this a issue, anyone else experienced this? I think I will use HS for core activities like work and stick with CL for experimenting and fun.

 

[StephN999]

GOPupd seems to expect an AMD GOP where there isn't any.

Unfortunately it's not a matter of the VBIOS whether the iMac will boot or not when the card is installed. Best way to exclude problems with the VBIOS is to clear the VBIOS flash EEPROM (that would be to flash a VBIOS that's just all 0xFF bytes).
That way the EFI firmware has nothing to load from the graphics card and hence cannot fail to execute an incompatible VBIOS. Obviously you'll not have any type of boot screen that way, but you should be able to remotely log in to Windows, macOS or Linux (has to already be enabled and set up properly of course).

Bonjour,

Thank you for these precisions.

Have a nice day.

 

[Schprecher]

Thanks @nikey22
Super! Happy to test it.

Here is my About screen for the K2100M with Elpida chips. Also, let me know if you want my ioreg entries for IOAccelerator if that helps. For the card reported vramUsedBytes + vramFreeBytes = 1073283072 bytes. Little less than 1GB - normal?

Cheers

if you have H5GQ1H24AFM MFR Or BFR its normal

H5GQ1H24MFR x 8 = 1024mb

look to ur vram memory name

 

[Schprecher]

I really happy, so nikey will made good working bios for K3100M.
.
And now finally waiting for a BIG WIN vs K3000M and correct 2Gb Vram to USE!

 

[CooperBox]

Hi, I have a simple question here (reading through the preamble and Q&A unable to find it addressed).
Is the screen display cable unique between the (A1312 models) late 2009, mid 2010 and mid 2011, specifically the display cable p/no. 593-1281 which I believe mine is defective and must replace.
Thanks

 

[Aesthetica]

I made a small app that fixes the color-depth issue at startup for some cards, like the 780M with @nikey22's ROM. After startup, start this app, the screen should turn black for a second and the colors/performance should be good to go. Appears to be working fine for me but obviously needs some testing first. Previously i had to put my iMac to sleep at least once or change screen resolution back and forth to fix this problem, now its a bit faster as i set it up in a way that it runs automatically on startup.

Download: https://github.com/passatgt/imac-color-depth-fix

Usage: just simply double click imaccolordepthfix to run. You can add it to your login items(system settings/users/login items), so it runs on a fresh startup automatically.

Awesome! I've seen some colour banding in the transparent / blurred parts of the OS every now and then with my K4100M but never seen anyone else mention it.

Thank you!

 

[Fran Frin]

Hello everyone, let's see if you can help me, I have a usb with catalina loader (opencore 0.6.3), for the spelling that I have changed to my iMac 2011, I have configured it with the .plist file for bigsur, but I have a problem, in Catalina I could choose it as a boot disk, but in big sur it doesn't appear in system settings, choose boot disk.

 

[motorm3]

Can someone tell me after I upgraded my imac with quadro k3100m if I put my old gpu back in i get black screen don't see nothing on the screen but the old card was good nothing wrong with it. I don't understand this behavior I should be able to get to boot screen because because there is drivers for the quadro k3100m.

 

[kuoshen]

if you have H5GQ1H24AFM MFR Or BFR its normal

H5GQ1H24MFR x 8 = 1024mb

look to ur vram memory name

My K2100M has Elpida memory chip W2032BBBG-6A-F. Micron acquired Elpida many years back, so here is the spec sheet from Micron for the memory chips.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hello everyone!

I successfully upgraded my 21.5'' iMac with a K2100M and replaced that old bastard card.

First of all, I want to thank for the great effort for all the people involved in this project! You guys are amazing.

Uploaded the test results and found out that for me, in MacOS Catalina, the benchmarks for some reason performed quite below the average, specifically on GeekBench5. I would get a score of 2500 on HS vs 1500 CL on metal.

Is this a issue, anyone else experienced this? I think I will use HS for core activities like work and stick with CL for experimenting and fun.

Please add a signature to your account containing the hardware as we all did.

I saw this before in this particular configuration (iMac 2011 21.5" and K2100M) and it seems to be a problem solved by either patching the AGPM extension (I do not know how or I forgot to document) or just spoofing a different board-ID (iMacPro1,1) using your OpenCore setup. In the latter case you would need a different version of the AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext extension to get your system sleeping well. I have attached it.

To spoof the other board-id Mac-7BA5B2D9E42DDD94 copy the PlatformInfo section from an AMD config.plist to your config.plist....

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi, I have a simple question here (reading through the preamble and Q&A unable to find it addressed).
Is the screen display cable unique between the (A1312 models) late 2009, mid 2010 and mid 2011, specifically the display cable p/no. 593-1281 which I believe mine is defective and must replace.
Thanks
View attachment 1690690

This is slightly off topic:
2009 and 2010 share the same type as shown on your picture. Ebay is a valuable source as Dr. Google.com to find more info. I am not the natural language interface to both sites...

 

[passatgt]

This is slightly off topic:
2009 and 2010 share the same type as shown on your picture. Ebay is a valuable source as Dr. Google.com to find more info. I am not the natural language interface to both sites...

The 2009 and 2010 were soo much better... the 2011 version, it can sense if you want to disconnect it and it will break just by looking at it

 

[vinirico]

Please add a signature to your account containing the hardware as we all did.

I saw this before in this particular configuration (iMac 2011 21.5" and K2100M) and it seems to be a problem solved by either patching the AGPM extension (I do not know how or I forgot to document) or just spoofing a different board-ID (iMacPro1,1) using your OpenCore setup. In the latter case you would need a different version of the AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext extension to get your system sleeping well. I have attached it.

To spoof the other board-id Mac-7BA5B2D9E42DDD94 copy the PlatformInfo section from an AMD config.plist to your config.plist....

Sure do! Thanks for the brief response.

Alright, I used the Package Installer solution that you provided in #10,524 using option number 2. iMac 2011, Catalina, new NVIDIA K610M, K1100M, K2100M GPU (with Open Core).

Tonight I will try what you recommended and give further comments on the results here.

🙌✌️

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Sure do! Thanks for the brief response.

Alright, I used the Package Installer solution that you provided in #10,524 using option number 2. iMac 2011, Catalina, new NVIDIA K610M, K1100M, K2100M GPU (with Open Core).

Tonight I will try what you recommended and give further comments on the results here.

🙌✌️

Does the system I able to sleep and awake without panic?

Changing the extension will be more complicated, there is no package installer around. But you can try the OC changes and do benchmarks with your K2100M and if this goes well than we focus on the extension. It is only for sleeping well.

 

[vinirico]

Does the system I able to sleep and awake without panic?

Changing the extension will be more complicated, there is no package installer around. But you can try the OC changes and do benchmarks with your K2100M and if this goes well than we focus on the extension. It is only for sleeping well.

It’s perfectly fine, the system sleeps and awakes with no problems on both OS under openCore 0.5.9.

Right, I will follow the manual method for installing this extension, if anything goes wild I rollback to this stable version currently running.

Appreciate your comments!