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

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi, i have this card k5100m, i wont install on imac 27, i5 3,1 ghz 2011.I will mod its heat sinks, it’s everything ok, this Rom works fine?

What is your question?

 

[Ginoga77]

What is your question?

My question: the nvidia quadro k5100m rom work Also with i5 processor? 3,2 ghz? I dont have the i7.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Where did you found evidence that it will run only with the i7?

There is no such dependency but there is no guarantee, too. Especially with NVIDIA cards in 2011 we had recently bad surprises.

 

[Ginoga77]

I wont try to flash this card with nikey22 rom. But i see a imac i7 processor 3,4 ghz in flashing precess. I ask because i have ordered an k3100m card but he send me a k5100m card via AliExpress.

 

[Terros]

I have a working, flashed 780M for sale if anyone's interested. I've upgraded to the WX7100 and have no use for the 780M now.

PM me if interested.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

But sir, installing High Sierra (which I have clean installed) section says only to install black screen option package which I done with no luck (sip disable, all packages checked). I have 880m so second point about install the iMacPro1,1 version of the AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext doesn't refer to me (it is for amd) and I didn't try it
Q2 (Sleep is broken and QuickSync is not working ) in some common OS problems section also doesn't refer to me, as now I try to use Hight Sierra.
What should I try next? thank you

You wrote about having tried High Sierra (which does not cause any known sleep problems unless the GPU itself it is causing it) and Mojave (which is known to cause sleep problems as described on post #1, the solution is listed there, too).

So if you have a 2011 running High Sierra (latest and greatest) with an 880M I cannot help you. There is no reason to have this kind of problem.

Note: A broken GPU may cause this problem.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

My humble advice is to grab a pen and paper to list down steps from 1st page and respective links and filter them for AMD as nvidia instructions might confuse you.

First Boot
My first boot after changing the WX4130 card was without internal display, external monitor was plugged in next to firewire port (left). This boot was without CL USB, to check, I got black boot screen and got HS login screen after a while for the login password. It logged me in and I checked the graphic specs (as screenshot was attached).
This was exactly as Ausdauerportler guided for AMD cards.

Furthermore, I installed the internal screen and kept the external also attached, rebooted again to check without CL USB in HS. This brought both screens to login directly (no boot screen) and it logged in and gave desktop.

Catalina Loader Boot
Edit: Before booting into CL, I selected Catalina Loader USB flash disk as my default startup drive, in system preferences.
This time I used the CL USB (details attached) and I got boot choice screen after some time. I chose the HS drive and came to red login screen only on external display (as attached previously). I am not able to pass this screen as it gives beach ball eternal spin once I login.

I suspect HS needs to be updated, which I will try and update.

Try this package (just download the complete EFI folder and put if on the Catalina Loader). Unfortunately you will have to reset the PRAM, reboot into High Sierra and set the default starting object back to Catalina Loader, again. It is listed on top of the OC post, too.

After installation you will figure out to have an iMacPro1,1 which is able to use Apple software update to install more recent macOS versions. Please create in any case new partitions for a new macOS version. DO NOT use APFS containers. It will break the system. You can also download the stock apple installers using this

It will bring back sleep with High Sierra automatically.

I developed this package on my iMac 2011 with an WX4130 to run all macOS versions unpatched. Only sound is not working on macOS version above High Sierra, yet. There is no patching necessary. It will run with any new AMD GPU even on 2009 and 2010 systems. It shares 99% of the config with the latest OCLP version.

 

[Andrey335]

You wrote about having tried High Sierra (which does not cause any known sleep problems unless the GPU itself it is causing it) and Mojave (which is known to cause sleep problems as described on post #1, the solution is listed there, too).

So if you have a 2011 running High Sierra (latest and greatest) with an 880M I cannot help you. There is no reason to have this kind of problem.

Note: A broken GPU may cause this problem.

Ok, thank you anyway. I will try Mojave with known solution

 

[h4lp m3]

If money is not an issue, what gfx card would be considered the "Holy Grail" for the 27-inch i7 model?
In other words, if you could have any card for free, what would it be?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

If money is not an issue, what gfx card would be considered the "Holy Grail" for the 27-inch i7 model?
In other words, if you could have any card for free, what would it be?

First post on first page of this thread, AMD list, WX7100.

 

[The_Croupier]

First post on first page of this thread, AMD list, WX7100.

Agree, if money is no issue may as well get the most expensive, the one with the best benchmarks and the most future proof.

 

[Ginoga77]

Hi this rom work Also with 27” , i5 3,2 ghz imac 2011?

Where did you found evidence that it will run only with the i7?

There is no such dependency but there is no guarantee, too. Especially with NVIDIA cards in 2011 we had recently bad surprises.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/page-344 i read this! But i have 27” 2011, i5. I try today to flash with this rom. I hope everything will be ok. I hope no bad surprise.

 

[Umarx]

Try this package (just download the complete EFI folder and put if on the Catalina Loader). Unfortunately you will have to reset the PRAM, reboot into High Sierra and set the default starting object back to Catalina Loader, again. It is listed on top of the OC post, too.

After installation you will figure out to have an iMacPro1,1 which is able to use Apple software update to install more recent macOS versions. Please create in any case new partitions for a new macOS version. DO NOT use APFS containers. It will break the system. You can also download the stock apple installers using this

It will bring back sleep with High Sierra automatically.

I developed this package on my iMac 2011 with an WX4130 to run all macOS versions unpatched. Only sound is not working on macOS version above High Sierra, yet. There is no patching necessary. It will run with any new AMD GPU even on 2009 and 2010 systems. It shares 99% of the config with the latest OCLP version.

Thanks a lot.

YOU ARE A STAR!!!

I was facing the issue of internal display not kicking in without having external one plugged in, and was exploring various versions of OC EFI. I was having black screens during CL jumping to OS and different artifacts randomly.

Finally, "Try this package" took care of it all, and now the system boots smoothly and screen remains consistent during the boot process till the desktop login. Seems I got my iMac back with a new soul.

Stay blessed!

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi this rom work Also with 27” , i5 3,2 ghz imac 2011?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/page-344 i read this! But i have 27” 2011, i5. I try today to flash with this rom. I hope everything will be ok. I hope no bad surprise.

So what?

In the complete thread you will not find any such evidence. Just because @nikey22 owns an i7 2011 it does certainly not mean the cards will run only on identical systems.

There are incompatible cards and systems, unfortunately no real rules are available. It happens on a case to case base.

 

[Ginoga77]

E allora?

Nel thread completo non troverai nessuna di queste prove. Solo perché [USER = 1199855] @ nikey22 [/ USER] possiede un i7 2011 non significa certamente che le schede funzioneranno solo su sistemi identici.

Ci sono carte e sistemi incompatibili, purtroppo non sono disponibili regole reali. Succede caso per caso. Do you know a suitable card for this model?

E allora?

Nel thread completo non troverai nessuna di queste prove. Solo perché [USER = 1199855] @ nikey22 [/ USER] possiede un i7 2011 non significa certamente che le schede funzioneranno solo su sistemi identici.

Ci sono carte e sistemi incompatibili, purtroppo non sono disponibili regole reali. Succede caso per caso.

Conosci una carta adatta per questo modello?

 

[davidg5678]

I just saw this interesting video about using eGPUs and NVME drives in 2012 MacBook Pros. The creator tapped into the BGA pads of the original GPU and was able to attach an eGPU enclosure.

Interestingly, the creator says a similar technique could be used to add NVME drive support to ~2011 iMacs by tapping into the MXM slot PCIe lanes. Take a look here:

There is a short clip at the very end of the video (I missed it the first time) of a modified NVME drive working in a 2011 iMac. This would make for a very interesting upgrade if the adapter boards are easy to install...

 

[ChrisCaro]

I just saw this interesting video about using eGPUs and NVME drives in 2012 MacBook Pros. The creator tapped into the BGA pads of the original GPU and was able to attach an eGPU enclosure.

Interestingly, the creator says a similar technique could be used to add NVME drive support to ~2011 iMacs by tapping into the MXM slot PCIe lanes. Take a look here:

There is a short clip at the very end of the video (I missed it the first time) of a modified NVME drive working in a 2011 iMac. This would make for a very interesting upgrade if the adapter boards are easy to install...

Please test and report back

 

[fuegotarta]

hi! thanks for all the hard work to make it possible!

i have a problem.
i have bought a quadro k1000m from a person who flash it bios with the k2000m one.
i had make the pendrive to acces from ssh. i had followed al the steps, and make a copy of the original.rom, but when i try to flash with the mod rom it shows that the firmware is not compatible.
there is a way to force it?
thanks

 

[fuegotarta]

the message is Board id mismatch

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I just saw this interesting video about using eGPUs and NVME drives in 2012 MacBook Pros. The creator tapped into the BGA pads of the original GPU and was able to attach an eGPU enclosure.

Interestingly, the creator says a similar technique could be used to add NVME drive support to ~2011 iMacs by tapping into the MXM slot PCIe lanes.

There is a short clip at the very end of the video (I missed it the first time) of a modified NVME drive working in a 2011 iMac. This would make for a very interesting upgrade if the adapter boards are easy to install...

What is the point of using an AIO without its stock LCD panel?
There are a kind of MXM to M.2 adapter, then M.2 to PCIE x16 to connect an eGPU. Too messy to my eye.

 

[davidg5678]

What is the point of using an AIO without its stock LCD panel?
There are a kind of MXM to M.2 adapter, then M.2 to PCIE x16 to connect an eGPU. Too messy to my eye.

The iMac retains its ability to use the internal LCD display. We'll have to wait for the follow-up video, but in the short glimpse I caught in the video I linked above, both the NVME SSD and GPU were connected simultaneously to a custom splitter PCB. I'd assume some of the PCIe lanes specifically dedicated to the GPU would be reduced with this design, but I really do not know anything about how it was implemented. As best I can tell, the LCD panel was functional though. The PCB looked reasonably neat, and once it is installed, theoretically a custom design like this could be far neater than jerry-rigging several adapter boards together anyway. (no messy wires would be needed)

2010 iMacs are stuck with SATA II at ~300 MB/s, and I think NVME SSDs can go at several GB/s these days. At least for some specific use cases, I'd imagine there would be a noticeable benefit to using this system. I'm looking forward to finding out more whenever a video is published about it. We'll have to wait and see...

 

[herrdude]

I just saw this interesting video about using eGPUs and NVME drives in 2012 MacBook Pros. The creator tapped into the BGA pads of the original GPU and was able to attach an eGPU enclosure.

Interestingly, the creator says a similar technique could be used to add NVME drive support to ~2011 iMacs by tapping into the MXM slot PCIe lanes. Take a look here:

There is a short clip at the very end of the video (I missed it the first time) of a modified NVME drive working in a 2011 iMac. This would make for a very interesting upgrade if the adapter boards are easy to install...

Thanks for the video. It was fantastic. I watched their other videos. They do some pretty hard-core hacks. Definitely out of my league!

 

[kral84]

Can you pls add an changelog to the first page what do you changed it...?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

hi! thanks for all the hard work to make it possible!

i have a problem.
i have bought a quadro k1000m from a person who flash it bios with the k2000m one.
i had make the pendrive to acces from ssh. i had followed al the steps, and make a copy of the original.rom, but when i try to flash with the mod rom it shows that the firmware is not compatible.
there is a way to force it?
thanks

From the pictures on techpowerup.com the BIOS chip on the K1000M can be used with a CH341A clip programmer. This one will not ask back but just install the new BIOS. Go and get one.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Can you pls add an changelog to the first page what do you changed it...?

There is a change log if you really try to find it. And I will no add one to the page itself since it hit already it‘s size limit.