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

[highvoltage12v]

Just to push the limits here. Has anyone seen somone try a GTX 1060m or better card?

Why though there are no web drivers yet, and no no one has tried Pascal. If it did work we would have no backlight which is fine we are finding ways (dying light module) around it.
[doublepost=1550959694][/doublepost]

My first attempt was the 1060. It was recognized, but I had no video output and MacOS recognized it as the generic Nvidia Chip Model 7mb. Looking back, I think it would have worked in Windows, but I was afraid that I’d end up with a useless 1060 MXM card, so I returned it and got the 980M which was confirmed to work by another member. I also saved $60 by going down to the 980M.

Was that with web drivers in HS? I had an MXM card do that when it wasn't seated all the way.

 

[ibanezbass]

Why though there are no web drivers yet, and no no one has tried Pascal. If it did work we would have no backlight which is fine we are finding ways (dying light module) around it.
[doublepost=1550959694][/doublepost]
Was that with web drivers in HS? I had an MXM card do that when it wasn't seated all the way.

Yes. But, I’m fairly certain that it was seated fully. My concern was mostly that something had fundamentally changed with the 1060 MXM that did not allow it to work. I also couldn’t prove that I didn’t receive a DOA card. So instead of waiting too long, I contacted the seller and explained my situation. He graciously let me return it. I wish now that I would have loaded Windows with the 6770m and tried again. I did try to get Fedora to load with the 1060 and never got any output.

I’m actually glad that I ended up with the Maxwell card due to ease of bios mods. Pascal may have been a different story.

 

[FlorisVN]

My first attempt was the 1060. It was recognized, but I had no video output and MacOS recognized it as the generic Nvidia Chip Model 7mb. Looking back, I think it would have worked in Windows, but I was afraid that I’d end up with a useless 1060 MXM card, so I returned it and got the 980M which was confirmed to work by another member. I also saved $60 by going down to the 980M.

the 1060m could have maybay worked in HS with nvidia web driver, have you also tried that at the time.. ?
as far as I know the GTX980m would not work with MacOS..

 

[ibanezbass]

the 1060m could have maybay worked in HS with nvidia web driver, have you also tried that at the time.. ?
as far as I know the GTX980m would not work with MacOS..

I answered this question in my response to @highvoltage12v
Yes, I was running HS with the Nvidia web driver.

@highvoltage12v, I see that you're running a Xeon chip in your 2010 iMac. Any idea which/if Xeon's will work in the 2011? I'd love to drop a Xeon E3-1290 in mine. Looks like it scores around 4000 more points on Geekbench than my 2600. Base clock of 3.6 and turbo of 4.0.

 

[liquidtwitch]

@highvoltage12v what's the dying light module exactly? I've been on this thread so infrequently since selling my 780m I'm a bit lost.

 

[philsrb]

Hello Everybody,

I have been reading this for a few days now. I have an iMac 27, with an Amd which has given up for real now. I have upgraded the Ram to 32GB and added an SSD drive in the past. Since I really want to use this iMac ineed to repair. I do not want to buy new hardware since I already have an ipad pro for daily use.
I read that you can just use a 780m or 880m GPU.
Now, i am currently looking to get one from somewhere real cheap (right now i have almost no money 🙁 )...
For that reason, i feel more secure if i ask twice here.
IS it truly just as simple as replacing the MXM card and then booting up the system with new drivers? Brightness issue wouldnt bother me i use high brightness anyway...
WHat i am looking for is a very easy and safe way of doing the upgrade. better performance would obviously also be great.
Can i run High Sierra on this upgraded system? will there be metal support?
CPU is 2700k which i also upgraded.
Thanks for the answers in advance

 

[III-V]

Hello everyone, I joined the site just for this thread. I spent a few hours reading it over the weekend, looks like there are some solutions, but maybe not an optimal one yet.

I have a mid-2011 iMac, 27 in 3.4GHz i7 with the 1G Radeon 6970M.

This computer has plenty of power for me, and I really want to get onto Mojave.

Is there any chance we have some 3rd party support soon? Is the GTX 780m the most muscle we can add?

thanks

 

[highvoltage12v]

@highvoltage12v what's the dying light module exactly? I've been on this thread so infrequently since selling my 780m I'm a bit lost.

It's a module that was originally made for the MacBook Pro to allow control backlight after a MuxHat was installed. For our purpose we are replacing the SD card reader and running PWM wire to the backlight module. We now have full backlight control again on the iMac.

 

[arkieboy72472]

@highvoltage12v what's the dying light module exactly? I've been on this thread so infrequently since selling my 780m I'm a bit lost.

It is a small hardware module created to a known fix backlight issue in certain models of MacBook Pro laptops. The idea is for its creator to figure on a way to repurpose it to provide backlight control to iMacs that have had their graphics cards replaced with a nonstandard card. Brightness control will increase the life of the LCD screen and make it put off less heat.
[doublepost=1551219828][/doublepost]

Hello everyone, I joined the site just for this thread. I spent a few hours reading it over the weekend, looks like there are some solutions, but maybe not an optimal one yet.

I have a mid-2011 iMac, 27 in 3.4GHz i7 with the 1G Radeon 6970M.

This computer has plenty of power for me, and I really want to get onto Mojave.

Is there any chance we have some 3rd party support soon? Is the GTX 780m the most muscle we can add?

thanks

Unless you have an external GPU, probably not. While a few people say they have gotten bigger and better cards to work, they have not shown how they actually did it which makes me question if they actually did it. As long as graphics drivers are limited in Mojave, your options are limited. If you want MUSCLE, you are in the wrong ecosystem. Never mind the fact we have to find cards with a BIOS comparable enough to actually work. If you know how to flash graphics card BIOS to work, your a step ahead of most. There is a list in this thread of what works in this model and it is a short one.

The only reason this thread exists anyway is to enable the 2009-2011 iMacs to go as far as possible. Many changes were made after 2011 but for the money the 2011 27" is a nice rig and super easy to work on compared to later models. The only issue is the ****** graphics cards and the Mojave requirements, both of which were probably done on purpose.

 

[Sricca]

Sorry this is off topic but the people in this thread have great knowledge. On my 2011 iMac there is two thunderbolt ports. Are these separate buses or is it the same bus with two connectors. The reason I am asking is to try and get the fastest raid performance possible. I currently have a little big disk with ssd. The fastest read speads are around 700mbs. The little big disk is basically showing in the system as separate drives that I use disk utility to make into RAID. I thought I would get better performance being a single ssd has around 500mps read speed. Would it be better to just use two separate enclosures ( one on each thunderbolt port) then make raid or is that not helpful?

 

[tpluth]

Sorry this is off topic but the people in this thread have great knowledge. On my 2011 iMac there is two thunderbolt ports. Are these separate buses or is it the same bus with two connectors. The reason I am asking is to try and get the fastest raid performance possible. I currently have a little big disk with ssd. The fastest read speads are around 700mbs. The little big disk is basically showing in the system as separate drives that I use disk utility to make into RAID. I thought I would get better performance being a single ssd has around 500mps read speed. Would it be better to just use two separate enclosures ( one on each thunderbolt port) then make raid or is that not helpful?

Thunderbolt is essentially a single line of the PCI-E bus, so the two ports share that.

The LaCie Little Big Disk has an AHCI SATA controller built into it that is on that PCI-E line. Creating a RAID on two enclosures versus just one might yield marginally better performance, but I doubt it will be significant. The throughput of Thunderbolt will utilize all throughput of two (possibly up to 4) rotational disk drives, but not 2 SSD's. The best you'll see is probably around 600 or 700MBps. To see more than that, you'd need a 2X PCI-E controller, which utilizes 2 PCI-E lines for throughput up to 20Mbps. Latency and SATA overhead eat up the balance of the throughput.

 

[ChronowerX]

Hi there, firstly let me say thanks to everyone who has taken the time to experiment and update this thread. It's been a pretty interesting read although I'm left a little confused. I'm also not a computer expert so I'm sorry if some questions come along as a little bit naive.

I've got a dead 27" mid 2011 imac and after reading some posts on here, I bought a k2000m and then realised I probably should have got a 765m since I have the larger heatsink 🙁 Anyway, I want to try to get it to work now with what I have.

My first concerns are about getting the k2000m card to boot. Some posts are saying that it's a straight swap (with things like brightness and boot screen missing) and other posts are saying to flash a new bios to it. Is it a case that the flashed bios versions are 'fully compatible' with all of high sierra's features whilst the unflashed ones work but with limited functionality?

Secondly, does anyone know what heatsink modifications / physical modifications to the card would be needed to fit the 27" imac with larger heatsink? I'd rather not modify anything on the mac too drastically since I probably would stick a 765m in at some point in the future.

I don't really want to invest in a 765m at the moment since I don't even know if this mac works. I picked it up with 'graphics problems' for £180, so it would be nice just to get it to boot into High Sierra before I do any more upgrades.

Thanks.

 

[FlorisVN]

Hi there, firstly let me say thanks to everyone who has taken the time to experiment and update this thread. It's been a pretty interesting read although I'm left a little confused. I'm also not a computer expert so I'm sorry if some questions come along as a little bit naive.

I've got a dead 27" mid 2011 imac and after reading some posts on here, I bought a k2000m and then realised I probably should have got a 765m since I have the larger heatsink 🙁 Anyway, I want to try to get it to work now with what I have.

My first concerns are about getting the k2000m card to boot. Some posts are saying that it's a straight swap (with things like brightness and boot screen missing) and other posts are saying to flash a new bios to it. Is it a case that the flashed bios versions are 'fully compatible' with all of high sierra's features whilst the unflashed ones work but with limited functionality?

Secondly, does anyone know what heatsink modifications / physical modifications to the card would be needed to fit the 27" imac with larger heatsink? I'd rather not modify anything on the mac too drastically since I probably would stick a 765m in at some point in the future.

I don't really want to invest in a 765m at the moment since I don't even know if this mac works. I picked it up with 'graphics problems' for £180, so it would be nice just to get it to boot into High Sierra before I do any more upgrades.

Thanks.

for 27" iMac's, I reccomend you use the Nvidia GTX765m or GTX780m.
Since these cards are MXM-B cards, and not MXM-A type like the Quadro K2000m.
Also use 3 pipe heatsink, which is best for these Nvidia cards in 27" iMac.

The Quadro k2000m MXM-A card, will be best for use with 21,5" iMac Models !
Since iMac 21,5" models use MXM-A cards.
See picture bellow to see difference between MXM-B and MXM-A cards.

Also the heatsink for the 27" iMac has to be modified slightly, to make room for the GTX765m graphics card.
It won't work without.
Also some small X-bracket mods will be necceary.
custom bios is not neccecary, it works just withouth bootscreen and brightness control and other minor issues..

I reccomend you sell your Quadro K2000m, and get a compatible Dell/Alienware GTX765m or GTX780m for your 27" iMac.
Also don't do this upgrade to your iMac, if you are not experienced with computer hardware, espacially with iMac hardware.
It could be a difficult upgrade for noobs in my opinion..

 

[ChronowerX]

Thanks for the reply. I'm comfortable enough pulling apart a computer but pretty much all my system building has been on Windows PC's using an ATX form factor (as you know, most hardware will play nicely with each other). Stuff like reflashing a bios with a raspberry pi is not something I've ever attempted or looked into.

I've removed the logic board from my iMac (for the second time) but I'm not 100% sure if the gfx card was/is the issue. I noticed actual damage to the logic board (please see pic) where one of the LCD cables connect (j9001). As you can see, it looks like it's been burnt out and soldered at some point.

I had tried reflowing the card when I got the mac last week. Before the reflow, I had a blank screen, fans powered up and no chime. After the reflow, I still had a blank screen but this time had a chime. I pulled the LCD back to see the diagnostic LED's whilst it was still connected and I had 3 LED's (which would suggest some kind of communication with the graphics cards wouldn't it?) but I didn't notice the damage to the connector at that point. So I ordered the k2000m. It's only when I went to fit it today that I noticed the damaged connector.

I have just tried installing the k2000m. It doesn't seem to have any obvious issues with the larger 3 pipe heatsink but the mac went back to fans and no chime. The diagnostic LED's now show just one light even though the power button will turn the fans on and off.

I've just baked my AMD card again and I'm going to see what type of behaviour I get. I post back here in a little bit, or is there a better place on here that you might suggest? I don't want to end up hijacking the thread.

 

[tpluth]

Thanks for the reply. I'm comfortable enough pulling apart a computer but pretty much all my system building has been on Windows PC's using an ATX form factor (as you know, most hardware will play nicely with each other). Stuff like reflashing a bios with a raspberry pi is not something I've ever attempted or looked into.

I've removed the logic board from my iMac (for the second time) but I'm not 100% sure if the gfx card was/is the issue. I noticed actual damage to the logic board (please see pic) where one of the LCD cables connect. As you can see, it looks like it's been burnt out and soldered at some point.

I had tried reflowing the card when I got the mac last week. Before the reflow, I had a blank screen, fans powered up and no chime. After the reflow, I still had a blank screen but this time had a chime. I pulled the LCD back to see the diagnostic LED's whilst it was still connected and I had 3 LED's (which would suggest some kind of communication with the graphics cards wouldn't it?) but I didn't notice the damage to the connector at that point. So I ordered the k2000m. It's only when I went to fit it today that I noticed the damaged connector.

I have just tried installing the k2000m. It doesn't seem to have any obvious issues with the larger 3 pipe heatsink but the mac went back to fans and no chime. The diagnostic LED's now show just one light even though the power button will turn the fans on and off.

I've just baked my AMD card again and I'm going to see what type of behaviour I get. I post back here in a little bit, or is there a better place on here that you might suggest? I don't want to end up hijacking the thread.View attachment 824168

Sorry, but you need a whole new logic board and LCD. The LCD power connector and some of the components for it are shorted out. I'd bet your LCD panel is probably the cause of the short. I certainly wouldn't hook that LCD up to a good logic board, for fear of blowing that logic board out as well.

My experience is that you only see proper lighting of the diagnostic LEDs when using a 6770M or 6970M with the Apple EFI vbios. Anything else is hit or miss.

 

[ChronowerX]

Arghh that's annoying 🙁 As an update, I put the old gfx card back in and now no chime.

I'm assuming there's no way to test the LCD without plugging it into a logic board? It is true that I've never seen an image on it. I think I might just have to break up what's left of it and sell it as parts (not that I can sell the LCD, gfx card or logic board).

 

[arkieboy72472]

Arghh that's annoying 🙁 As an update, I put the old gfx card back in and now no chime.

I'm assuming there's no way to test the LCD without plugging it into a logic board? It is true that I've never seen an image on it. I think I might just have to break up what's left of it and sell it as parts (not that I can sell the LCD, gfx card or logic board).

Your best cheapest bet is just to pony up for a new logic board. You can get them with or without a processor and processor heat sink on it. The i5 and i7 can be found for under 200 i think. Once you do that you will need to remove the old one and remove the graphics heat sink and bracket.

If your board and graphics card are toast, you are looking at 300 bucks or so.

Nothing in this thread suggested buying that graphics card for this board. There is no making it work.

Do your homework and decide what is the cheapest and best way to get a machine up and running or getting something else for the lowest price.

 

[passatgt]

I think it might be cheaper to get a 27" iMac with a faulty GPU on ebay for pretty much same price as a motherboard... And you'll have some spare parts from the broken one.

 

[ChronowerX]

Nothing in this thread suggested buying that graphics card for this board. There is no making it work.

Do your homework and decide what is the cheapest and best way to get a machine up and running or getting something else for the lowest price.

There was some post a few pages back where someone's 27" had the 6770m with dual pipe heatsink which I believe is a MXM-A card. My emc number suggested that I should have had that card too with 512mb VRAM. I can't seem to find anything in this thread suggesting that this wouldn't work.

I think rather than playing a game of roulette until I get it working, I'm just going to gut the machine and turn it into a nice monitor with one of those kits than convert the LCD panel into a HDMI input and sell things like the CPU and PSU. Probably better at this point just pairing it with a SFF hackintosh.

Thanks for your help guys anyway.

 

[nathansz]

There was some post a few pages back where someone's 27" had the 6770m with dual pipe heatsink which I believe is a MXM-A card. My emc number suggested that I should have had that card too with 512mb VRAM. I can't seem to find anything in this thread suggesting that this wouldn't work.

I think rather than playing a game of roulette until I get it working, I'm just going to gut the machine and turn it into a nice monitor with one of those kits than convert the LCD panel into a HDMI input and sell things like the CPU and PSU. Probably better at this point just pairing it with a SFF hackintosh.

Thanks for your help guys anyway.

could you direct me to one of these kits?
thanks

 

[tpluth]

I was able to get both internal and external screens working on a GTX765M but neither with a GTX780M. I'm able to log in and see the 780M under both MacOS and Windows 7, but no screens.

Any ideas? I want to upgrade my 2011 27" iMac + 27" Thunderbolt to Mojave and I'd prefer to use the 780, if I can get screens working on it.

 

[FlorisVN]

I was able to get both internal and external screens working on a GTX765M but neither with a GTX780M. I'm able to log in and see the 780M under both MacOS and Windows 7, but no screens.

Any ideas? I want to upgrade my 2011 27" iMac + 27" Thunderbolt to Mojave and I'd prefer to use the 780, if I can get screens working on it.

the problem with your GTX780m then is, that it is not running a supported bios.
Do you have a Dell/Alienware GTX780m now ?
Check which vbios your GTX780m has on it right now..

I would advise you to flash it with the Alienware version, and test it again :
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios...=GTX+780M&interface=&memType=&memSize=&since=

Try flashing it within Windows 7 for example, using RDP or teamvieuwer or another remote tool.

 

[tpluth]

the problem with your GTX780m then is, that it is not running a supported bios.
Do you have a Dell/Alienware GTX780m now ?
Check which vbios your GTX780m has on it right now..

I would advise you to flash it with the Alienware version, and test it again :
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios...=GTX+780M&interface=&memType=&memSize=&since=

Try flashing it within Windows 7 for example, using RDP or teamvieuwer or another remote tool.

Sorry - forget to mention that I did flash it with the Alienware ROM and it made no difference.

I have also install the nVidia web driver package, which also made no difference.

Does this mean I have a bad card?

 

[tpluth]

Sorry - forget to mention that I did flash it with the Alienware ROM and it made no difference.

I have also install the nVidia web driver package, which also made no difference.

Does this mean I have a bad card?

Oops. I actually flashed it with the Dell version (80.04.AF.00.03).

It came with verion 80.04.E8.00.0B which is not listed at TechPowerup.com

When I try to flash it with the Alienware version, I get a warning that the file contains a different PCI Subsystem ID.



C:\Users\Tom\Downloads\nvflash_5.531.0>nvflash64 A121012.rom
NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.531.0)
Copyright (C) 1993-2018, NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved.


Checking for matches between display adapter(s) and image(s)...

Adapter: GeForce GTX 780M (10DE,119F,1028,05AA) H:--:NRM S:00,B:01,D:00,F:0
0


EEPROM ID (C2,2012) : MX MX25L2005 2.7-3.6V 2048Kx1S, page

WARNING: Firmware image PCI Subsystem ID (10DE.1009)
does not match adapter PCI Subsystem ID (1028.05AA).

NOTE: Exception caught.
Nothing changed!



ERROR: PCI subsystem ID mismatch

 

[tpluth]

Oops. I actually flashed it with the Dell version (80.04.AF.00.03).

It came with verion 80.04.E8.00.0B which is not listed at TechPowerup.com

When I try to flash it with the Alienware version, I get a warning that the file contains a different PCI Subsystem ID.



C:\Users\Tom\Downloads\nvflash_5.531.0>nvflash64 A121012.rom
NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.531.0)
Copyright (C) 1993-2018, NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved.


Checking for matches between display adapter(s) and image(s)...

Adapter: GeForce GTX 780M (10DE,119F,1028,05AA) H:--:NRM S:00,B:01,D:00,F:0
0


EEPROM ID (C2,2012) : MX MX25L2005 2.7-3.6V 2048Kx1S, page

WARNING: Firmware image PCI Subsystem ID (10DE.1009)
does not match adapter PCI Subsystem ID (1028.05AA).

NOTE: Exception caught.
Nothing changed!



ERROR: PCI subsystem ID mismatch

Okay. Got it installed with nvflash64 -6 filename.rom

Not working in Windows 7. No driver loads for it. GPU-Z sees it, though.

Working in MacOS High Sierra with the nVidia web driver on the second thunderbolt port (next to ethernet) with a DP/DVI adapter. Not working on the internal display.