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

[plasticpippo]

Hi,

so I have successfully installed a K4100m, Catalina and Windows 10 and all are currently stable.

I noticed this post regarding audio in Win10 and was wondering if someone could shed some light on this process linked in the original post. There seems to be a number of avenues to take in this method and it’s not overly clear which one I should take.

If there is another method of removing the “HD Audio” drivers and replacing them with the Cirrus ones in the Bootcamp folder then I’m all ears; I can’t seem to get them to work as windows defaults to the HD Audio drivers.

thanks all.

The problem is, i believe, with the memoty allocation in windows, so no driver will work, unless you use the method in the link i posted.
as for the method used use the intel one. it worked on my imac 2011 27"
as for the options at the end of the article, i have only tried option 1 and it worked until re-installed some nvidia drivers.
have not tried option 2 as i have reinstalled windows 10 using MBR / Bios mode

 

[giampi.bel]

I think if you run Make yourself to build the executable, it should work. I don't have access to HS right now to do this.

I tried just simply double clicking Makefile to run but it seems not working. In attachment the error.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I tried just simply double clicking Makefile to run but it seems not working. In attachment the error.

Can you do my two favours and add a signature with your hardware and install this package and report back if you still see the color problems with High Sierra and your Nvidia GPU?

 

[luckasa]

I've finally found a solution to update firmware: Install only the original HDD (the one that comes with iMac), reinstall Mac OS High Sierra and Security updates.
My original HDD was at bottom of a lot of boxes but at last I've found it!
Without the original HDD the firmware doesn't upgrade.

 

[HelloDarknes]

So, its me again with another problem.

I tried the boot into linux option, that is at Q3.

I have successfully installed linux from Q3 onto an USB drive, I have tested it on my other computer, but the problem is, that when I plug it into my 2011 iMac and try to boot into it, it never does. I don't even know into what the computer is booting, I am just getting a black screen. And if someone questioned or will question, how did I know that it didn't boot from drive, it is because I couldn't find it when using SSH and the light on the USB wasn't active at all.

Best regards,

HelloDarknes

 

[herrdude]

I don't even know into what the computer is booting

All other drives should be disconnected as per the instructions on the first page.

 

[giampi.bel]

Can you do my two favours and add a signature with your hardware and install this package and report back if you still see the color problems with High Sierra and your Nvidia GPU?

Thank you for suggestion. After package installation the color problems are still present

 

[burbino]

imac a1311 2009 upgrade video card 4670 256mb whats update the Nvidia models ?

 

[rodolfo.araujo]

imac a1311 2009 upgrade video card 4670 256mb whats update the Nvidia models ?

I don’t even understand your question. Sorry, English is not my native language. I encourage you to read the first post again and again and again.

 

[HelloDarknes]

Hi, its me again.

I have a lot to say, so this post may be long, but please read it all.

I have already been in this discussion not a long time ago. I asked some questions, but now I will bring all of my questions into one post. If anyone could response to my questions, I would be very happy 🙂

And before I start asking, I just want to say, that English is not my first language, so I can have some problems and I apologize for that in advance.

Ok so:

I have an Imac, 27", year 2011. My old graphics died and I installed an Nvidia Quadro K2000M. And its not bad at all.

My questions:
1. Can I install MacOS Catalina with DosDude1 patcher without flashing graphics (will the POST patches apply themselves?), (this question can be unimportant if we solve the question number two),
2. I want to flash the graphic card, but I do not want to take apart the whole computer to disconnect the internal drive, or something like that because I had problems with the display cables (the display wont work and I had to fix the positions of cables...) when I installed graphics. I have problems, when I want to boot into Linux, or any other OS, because when on startup manager (which I do not see) I blindy choose a drive, it sometimes isnt MacOs, that is installed onto my internal drive, and never the Linux USB i made with the help of Q3 in the first post (and I know that the USB works, because I tried it on other device). So, how can I flash?
3. How is this graphics card doing on Catalina? Is it good, does the Imove work?

I am looking for easiest ways possible to fix this, because I am quite new into this and I do not want to do any harm.

I have already read the first post of this discussion like a thousand times, and there are some things I do not quite understand, so if you suggest something from first page, please explain with little more explanation by yourself before suggesting the first post, please.

People, who helped me so far on this discussion, Thanks.

I wish everyone happy holidays and thanks in advance for answers.

Best regards,

HelloDarknes

 

[herrdude]

Hi, its me again.

I have a lot to say, so this post may be long, but please read it all.

I have already been in this discussion not a long time ago. I asked some questions, but now I will bring all of my questions into one post. If anyone could response to my questions, I would be very happy 🙂

And before I start asking, I just want to say, that English is not my first language, so I can have some problems and I apologize for that in advance.

Ok so:

I have an Imac, 27", year 2011. My old graphics died and I installed an Nvidia Quadro K2000M. And its not bad at all.

My questions:
1. Can I install MacOS Catalina with DosDude1 patcher without flashing graphics (will the POST patches apply themselves?), (this question can be unimportant if we solve the question number two),
2. I want to flash the graphic card, but I do not want to take apart the whole computer to disconnect the internal drive, or something like that because I had problems with the display cables (the display wont work and I had to fix the positions of cables...) when I installed graphics. I have problems, when I want to boot into Linux, or any other OS, because when on startup manager (which I do not see) I blindy choose a drive, it sometimes isnt MacOs, that is installed onto my internal drive, and never the Linux USB i made with the help of Q3 in the first post (and I know that the USB works, because I tried it on other device). So, how can I flash?
3. How is this graphics card doing on Catalina? Is it good, does the Imove work?

I am looking for easiest ways possible to fix this, because I am quite new into this and I do not want to do any harm.

I have already read the first post of this discussion like a thousand times, and there are some things I do not quite understand, so if you suggest something from first page, please explain with little more explanation by yourself before suggesting the first post, please.

People, who helped me so far on this discussion, Thanks.

I wish everyone happy holidays and thanks in advance for answers.

Best regards,

HelloDarknes

If somebody said that he wanted to learn to drive but he didn't want to use the car keys, what would you tell him?

 

[KennyW]

Hi, its me again.

I have a lot to say, so this post may be long, but please read it all.

I have already been in this discussion not a long time ago. I asked some questions, but now I will bring all of my questions into one post. If anyone could response to my questions, I would be very happy 🙂

And before I start asking, I just want to say, that English is not my first language, so I can have some problems and I apologize for that in advance.

Ok so:

I have an Imac, 27", year 2011. My old graphics died and I installed an Nvidia Quadro K2000M. And its not bad at all.

My questions:
1. Can I install MacOS Catalina with DosDude1 patcher without flashing graphics (will the POST patches apply themselves?), (this question can be unimportant if we solve the question number two),
2. I want to flash the graphic card, but I do not want to take apart the whole computer to disconnect the internal drive, or something like that because I had problems with the display cables (the display wont work and I had to fix the positions of cables...) when I installed graphics. I have problems, when I want to boot into Linux, or any other OS, because when on startup manager (which I do not see) I blindy choose a drive, it sometimes isnt MacOs, that is installed onto my internal drive, and never the Linux USB i made with the help of Q3 in the first post (and I know that the USB works, because I tried it on other device). So, how can I flash?
3. How is this graphics card doing on Catalina? Is it good, does the Imove work?

I am looking for easiest ways possible to fix this, because I am quite new into this and I do not want to do any harm.

I have already read the first post of this discussion like a thousand times, and there are some things I do not quite understand, so if you suggest something from first page, please explain with little more explanation by yourself before suggesting the first post, please.

People, who helped me so far on this discussion, Thanks.

I wish everyone happy holidays and thanks in advance for answers.

Best regards,

HelloDarknes

Putting your Mac setup in your Signature would help others answering your questions instead of requiring you to re-tell your setup every time 🙂

I suppose you have read the first post Q&A Q3 on the various methods of flashing a GPU.
Find one that meet your criteria.

And it seems you are using a PC vBIOS in your K2000 that works in your iMac 2011, but usually it only has external display but not internal without Mac vBIOS.

To flash the BIOS, opening up the iMac is necessary since you need to install the GPU card anyway.
But since you have damaged your LCD panel display cable adapter requiring extra fixation, this would be a difficult situation.

The problem with iMac 2011 is the complex procedure in removing the logic board to assess the GPU, unlike my iMac 2010 that requires only removing 3 screws for the GPU bracelet. But during the first removal, according to users here, it is possible to switch the screw anchors from inside to the outside of the logic board so that subsequent access to the GPU would be much easier. It is up to your decision whether you are comfortable to do it once and for all.

If your new GPU is working in external display under High Sierra, really the easiest is to open up your iMac again, disconnect all HD/SSD, connect your Linux Flash Drive to a USB port and to boot into Linux to do so. I suppose your external display should have output for continuation of the flashing.

Otherwise, if your have a BootCamp windows partition, you may boot into Windows to do the flashing without opening up your iMac again. I think an external Windows USB boot disk will also do. I am not certain whether using a OpenCore BootLoader on an SD can help you to boot into the Linux USB Flash drive to do the flashing. I haven't tried before. But even then, you won't see anything in your iMac display (unless your ext display works). You still need another PC or Mac to SSH to your iMac.

If you can blindly select boot disk by press option key, perhaps just keep trying until you hit the correct one, Again don't expect to see anything in your iMac. It takes about 5 minutes to boot into Linux, You have to check from other computer to see whether your iMac is online. So, better give your iMac a fixed IP address.

 

[rtagliavia]

Hi everyone!. I have been following this thread for a long time and want to thank all the effort and knowledge that you guys have shared.

I love my mid 2010 27 inch IMac and watching it run Big Sur with a K3000M card thanks to Nick's Bios is just awesome.

However the computer is freezing completely while working or trying to run benchmarks. Display doesn't go to off, image remain and I have mouse movement but can't access activity monitor or switch applications.

If any of you guys have experienced something similar I would appreciate some pointers for troubleshooting.

Did Apple diagnostics and RAM is ok, also verified that no solder or cap of the GPU was in contact with some metal parts, Issue was present on HIgh Sierra but since normal use seems ok i decided to update to Big Sur and see if there was a kext or driver missing.

Thank you all in advance and for sharing your knowledge.

 

[nikey22]

@rtagliavia
3 issues:

1. I've updated the ROM to include less aggressive timings and detuned it more (1600Mhz, 705.5Mhz TDP). It should closer approximate the stock settings of the K3000M now. Give it another try.

2. Unfortunately, I'm thus far unable to set the correct vram cap in the bios. It is registering 4096Mb when it should be 2047Mb. I'm looking into correcting that in the future. It's trickier with nvidia roms, with AMD its easy and very clear. For Nvidia, they use a subroutine to calculate rom size, and unlike the K3100M, it is independant of vram die generations (AFR/BFR).

3. Big Sur may not be an ideal OS for benchmarking at this time. I benchmarked it with High Sierra with the previously very aggressive timings and it did well.

 

[rtagliavia]

@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 for everything Nikey, I just installed a K3000M if ypu need beta tester for the any bios update please let em know.

 

[rtagliavia]

@rtagliavia
3 issues:

1. I've updated the ROM to include less aggressive timings and detuned it more (1600Mhz, 705.5Mhz TDP). It should closer approximate the stock settings of the K3000M now. Give it another try.

2. Unfortunately, I'm thus far unable to set the correct vram cap in the bios. It is registering 4096Mb when it should be 2047Mb. I'm looking into correcting that in the future. It's trickier with nvidia roms, with AMD its easy and very clear. For Nvidia, they use a subroutine to calculate rom size.

3. Big Sur may not be an ideal OS for benchmarking at this time. I benchmarked it with High Sierra with the previously very aggressive timings and it did well.

Thanks for your reply Nikey22!, just got it after posting the reply to your post regarding the detuned version.

I know you will fix the vram issue eventually take your time. I upgraded the Gpu mainly to keep up with OSX so not really worried about achieving a major performance boost.

Regarding the rom version, I took the file from post linked in page "1", if the updated Rom is posted elsewhere I would appreciate a link.

I will do a full backup of all data and revert to High Sierra, but so far even doing some editing on a screenshot hangs the IMac.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Ciao,

I moved on and finally found the time to do the GPU swap. As anticipated, I installed an AMD WX4150 (fully aware of the risks).

After finishing, the iMac looks dead. I push the power-on button, but nothing happens. No fan noise, no chime. Nothing at all.

I see three main reasons:

1. the GPU is not recognized and this is exactly how it works -- the iMac won't even make a small sound at all;
2. I forgot to plug back something somewhere, i.e. I only need to open it back and check for everything to be in place;
3. I did something horribly wrong, and the motherboard is gone.

Re: points 2 and 3, I will investigate of course. I was just wondering if somebody may help me in assessing point 1: what are the symptoms when mounting a non-viable WX4150? Is the iMac expected to produce some kind of noise (fans, possibly, or even startup chime) when pressing the power-on button? Or is this 'silence of death' exactly the symptom telling me that my specific WX4150 can be trashed?

I looked around in the forum, but could not find this info.

Thank you in advance

Sergio

If you didn't flash the card, the machine will not power on.
My HP WX4150 has been very unstable since yesterday, after I took it out to try on a GPU dead iMac 2011.
After I put it back to my iMac 2010, weird things happen.
Each time, the iMac just rolls-over and dies like a brick.
I had to unplug it, remove everything, do NVRAM reset, reinstall one-by-one parts until it works again.
How unstable:
- OS running well with no Internal screen. Turn-off, unplug and install internal screen => dead.
- OS running well with no internal screen. Screw in the tiny screw for GPU frame holder => dead
- OS running well with external screen only, use it for 30min, then dead and bricked.

I'm ordering another GPU to try. Let's see if the new card is more stable.
There are a lot of factors that is specific to your iMac and you have to detect the issue yourself
- Bad connectors on the LCD backlight power (causing short-circuit and PSU shutdown)
- Dusty MXM slot => causing short-circuit on the logic board and it just shut-down.
- Bad eDP connector
- and finally, the MXM card is not compatible. (it still work in a Windows machine, though)

And keeping the stock MXM card is advisable for troubleshooting. I sold mine and now have to do trial-and-error as troubleshooting.

 

[MirComputers]

Hi, its me again.

I have a lot to say, so this post may be long, but please read it all.

I have already been in this discussion not a long time ago. I asked some questions, but now I will bring all of my questions into one post. If anyone could response to my questions, I would be very happy 🙂

And before I start asking, I just want to say, that English is not my first language, so I can have some problems and I apologize for that in advance.

Ok so:

I have an Imac, 27", year 2011. My old graphics died and I installed an Nvidia Quadro K2000M. And its not bad at all.

My questions:
1. Can I install MacOS Catalina with DosDude1 patcher without flashing graphics (will the POST patches apply themselves?), (this question can be unimportant if we solve the question number two),
2. I want to flash the graphic card, but I do not want to take apart the whole computer to disconnect the internal drive, or something like that because I had problems with the display cables (the display wont work and I had to fix the positions of cables...) when I installed graphics. I have problems, when I want to boot into Linux, or any other OS, because when on startup manager (which I do not see) I blindy choose a drive, it sometimes isnt MacOs, that is installed onto my internal drive, and never the Linux USB i made with the help of Q3 in the first post (and I know that the USB works, because I tried it on other device). So, how can I flash?
3. How is this graphics card doing on Catalina? Is it good, does the Imove work?

I am looking for easiest ways possible to fix this, because I am quite new into this and I do not want to do any harm.

I have already read the first post of this discussion like a thousand times, and there are some things I do not quite understand, so if you suggest something from first page, please explain with little more explanation by yourself before suggesting the first post, please.

People, who helped me so far on this discussion, Thanks.

I wish everyone happy holidays and thanks in advance for answers.

Best regards,

HelloDarknes

Installing OpenCore and then using it to boot external usb drives (either a working windows 10 copy or linux, to flash the gpu) is the way to go in your situation. As to how to do that, there are multiple half-baked guides on here, you have to go by trial and errors until you get there. Good luck

 

[burbino]

hello i have a 2009 imac a1311 with amd 4670 256mb video card to replace it which video card model should i get?

 

[burbino]

I don’t even understand your question. Sorry, English is not my native language. I encourage you to read the first post again and again and again.

hello i have a 2009 imac a1311 with amd 4670 256mb video card to replace it which video card model should i get?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

hello i have a 2009 imac a1311 with amd 4670 256mb video card to replace it which video card model should i get?

It depend how much money do you want to spend.
Search the Internet for the prices of old video cards that match with the list in post #1 for the first conception of price.

 

[burbino]

Nvidia k1000

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

Nvidia k1000

Add your signature please.
What kind of processor do you have on this iMac 2009 A1311?

 

[plasticpippo]

Hello!
first of all: I've read a lot of times the first post and now I'm trying to install the Opencore.
It says: "Install the latest firmware for your iMac". I have imac Mid 2011 and I've tried to update the firmware but it doesn't work: I've install a lot of times Mac OS and all the security updates a lot of times in one hard disk and in the other.
The last firmware version is 87.0.0.0 but mine is 004F.B00.1804101150
Someone has the 87.0.0.0 version and I can try to update from dosdude1 ROMTool.
Thank you!

just to make sure: you have to install high sierra for this firmware update to be available

 

[plasticpippo]

Hi,

so I have successfully installed a K4100m, Catalina and Windows 10 and all are currently stable.

I noticed this post regarding audio in Win10 and was wondering if someone could shed some light on this process linked in the original post. There seems to be a number of avenues to take in this method and it’s not overly clear which one I should take.

If there is another method of removing the “HD Audio” drivers and replacing them with the Cirrus ones in the Bootcamp folder then I’m all ears; I can’t seem to get them to work as windows defaults to the HD Audio drivers.

thanks all.

if you install windows in UEFI / GPT mode there is no way of doing that as windows does not see the device due to what i believe is memory allocation.
as for the method explained in the link, i used the "Intel" one and it worked perfectly

the options in the end of the article are interchangeable AFAIK.