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

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The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
The famous first post tells you a GCN4 GPU needs an external display or a simple display emulator stick connector plugged in to fire up the internal display when booting High Sierra. Known issue - I bet. So reading the docs would bring much closer.
 
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Argh.... I guess I missed that!

Oh well, the reason I am doing this work was to upgrade to Monterey so I was just trying to boot the HS disk to make sure that the system was working properly. I'm there now with the Catalina system installed.

Now onto learning how to deal with OpenCore and getting Monterey installed.

BTW, does anyone have any comments on going past Monterey with a GPU that is not supported by Metal2? I see that there is legacy support, but will that come with a performance hit?
 
StephenM108 said:
"It is a great idea to change the CPU as well. I bought the Intel Core I7 870 and it's going well."
Click to expand...
What's the "best" CPU that I can put in this machine? Will it take one of the Ivy Bridge processors? And how much power can I expend? (the 2400 that I have is 65W, can I take one of the i7's at 95?)
 
I don't know what Mac you have. You could Google your Mac model and ask what is the best CPU I can use on my model. I know my imac mid 2010 takes an Intel I7 880 but its only 1st generation unfortunately with these older macs.

You never told me if you tried to flash the BIOS on the mother board with Flashrom.
Another thing I learnt is that OCLP can write to the BIOS when you do a MacOS upgrade or run OCLP and I think the reason why for me at least why I could not install High Sierra as the BIOS has information of a higher OS and then you try and boot your USB then the BIOS will not accept a lower OS that you may have had previously. But correct me if I am wrong, but I think that is how it works.

I was able to go from Ventura to Big Sur and the computer did not reject it, but with High Sierra not possible.
 
Hi guys, I'm new here and also new to old imacs... I have a question, I have an Imac mid 2011 A1311 and I installed a Quadro k2000M video card, at first the ventura recognized it, but I have some glitches and some slowness, I've already installed the After installing the opencore patch but it still isn't normal, am I forgetting something? Can you please help me?

thanks
 
Victor27rs said:
Hi guys, I'm new here and also new to old imacs... I have a question, I have an Imac mid 2011 A1311 and I installed a Quadro k2000M video card, at first the ventura recognized it, but I have some glitches and some slowness, I've already installed the After installing the opencore patch but it still isn't normal, am I forgetting something? Can you please help me?

thanks
Click to expand...
 
When booting to high sierra with wx7100 internal screen goes blank, you need to plug in an external display into the mini display port, the one next to the Lan port. Then the internal screen will come alive again, this is needed on each boot. I use a external display emulator stick. Look at first post it's mentioned there.
Hope that helps.
When running monterey with oclp internal screen work perfectly
 
unclemiltie said:
....
Now onto learning how to deal with OpenCore and getting Monterey installed.

BTW, does anyone have any comments on going past Monterey with a GPU that is not supported by Metal2? I see that there is legacy support, but will that come with a performance hit?
Click to expand...
Sonoma installs and works great for me on WX7100 iMacs; using the latest OCLP v1.0.0 of course. I'd suggest loading it and giving it a go, then work backwards to older macOS if you have issues or feel the performance is lacking.

1696351243388.png
 
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Thanks for that

I'm trying to install Monterey, but having issues. it gets to the "less than a minute" remaining on the screen and just seems to stop.

Edit: More info but it did the same with a second disk although at this point it's not accessing the external boot/install drive. I can still hear the internal HDD seeking so it's doing SOMETHING but no idea what's happening. "less than a minute remaining" has been up for about 20 minutes at this point.


I built a new installer disk and am trying again, we'll see.

Edit: Well, that "less than a minute" turned out to be almost a half hour and FINALLY the system rebooted and I now have a working version of Monterey on the computer. Not sure why it too soooooooo long, but maybe I'm spoiled with my usual SSD instead of the 1TB Hard Disk as the target.

I still have the SSD from High Sierra since I didn't want to blow that away with my new install and will re-install it after I take Monterey for a spin for a while. Hopefully that will go faster. But for now, the system is working and seems to perform reasonably well.
 
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StephenM108 said:
How did you change the name of the Graphics Card?
My card is the AMD RADEON WX4150 4GB
And it currently says AMD RADEON POLARIS.
Click to expand...
The BiOS and some internal macOS and OC tables determine the name - which is purely cosmetic. Apple does not use AMD marketing names in all cases, e.g. the M5100 chip can show up as R9 M370X.
 
hi update to firepro m5100 and works fine but now i update oclp from 0.6.8 version to 1.0.1 and now dont login its only shows circle and dont entrer to system. Its possible return to 0.6.8 version? or any help. Thank you
 

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Hi everybody, I don't know if someone can help me. I have a 2010 imac 27'' 11,3 and i bought from ebay a k4100M for upgrade the gpu. The install had been successfully but when I try to flash the card (because the screen is black) i get this error:

NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.414.0)
Simplified Version For OEM Only
Checking for matches between display adapter(s) and image(s)...

Adapter: Quadro K4100M (10DE,11B7,103C,2256) H:--:NRM S:00,B:01,D:00,F:00

NOTE: Only IFR present:
NOTE: Skipping Board ID and Device ID checks.
NOTE: EEPROM does not contain board ID, skipping board ID check.


WARNING: Firmware image PCI Subsystem ID (1028.15CD)

does not match adapter PCI Subsystem ID (103C.2256).

NOTE: Exception caught.
Nothing changed!

ERROR: PCI subsystem ID mismatch

Is there something I can do?
 
Sure, you can find versions of nvflash with removable ID check.
Or use a cheap programmer like CH341 to reprogram the chip, but this means disassembling again.
 
Thank you for your reply. I've tried with -6 option ad it seems that the rom has been programmed. But I still have the Black Screen. Is there something else to do? I've rebooted with option key pressed but the screen is still dead.
 
Hello, i hope someone can help me. I have an imac 10.1, 27 inch, A1312, late 2009 with Monterey12.7, OC1.0.1, 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM, CPU Intel 3.33 GHz Core 2 Duo, ATI Radeon HD 4670 256 MB. Works perfectly except for the missing metal option. I flashed a red Dell M5100 with M5100-HynixAFS-GOP.rom. The boot process works perfectly, but the display brightness cannot be adjusted and the graphics are very slow. The system report shows an M5100 with 16MB RAM. The config.plist boot args says: keepsyms=1 debug=0x100 -lilubetaall -btlfxallowanyaddr ipc_control_port_options=0 -nokcmismatchpanic amfi=0x80 -disable_sidecar_mac -lilubetaall -radpg=15 -wegtree agdpmod=pikera. The Metal GPU is not supported. I would be very grateful for a tip. Best regards
 
bernd20062 said:
Hello, i hope someone can help me. I have an imac 10.1, 27 inch, A1312, late 2009 with Monterey12.7, OC1.0.1, 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM, CPU Intel 3.33 GHz Core 2 Duo, ATI Radeon HD 4670 256 MB. Works perfectly except for the missing metal option. I flashed a red Dell M5100 with M5100-HynixAFS-GOP.rom. The boot process works perfectly, but the display brightness cannot be adjusted and the graphics are very slow. The system report shows an M5100 with 16MB RAM. The config.plist boot args says: keepsyms=1 debug=0x100 -lilubetaall -btlfxallowanyaddr ipc_control_port_options=0 -nokcmismatchpanic amfi=0x80 -disable_sidecar_mac -lilubetaall -radpg=15 -wegtree agdpmod=pikera. The Metal GPU is not supported. I would be very grateful for a tip. Best regards
Click to expand...
Revert OCLP patches (from ATI 4670) and apply new patches (for AMD GCN) - this is more an how to use OCLP problem than a GPU related one.

Edit: You will find the revert button next to the patch button in the OCLP app.
 
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The Radeon HD 4670 in my Late 2009 21.5-inch iMac failed completely. I get a chime but no video on start up. It's my understanding that I have to install OCLP to be able to use any replacement AMD GPUs. It seems I would have to install OCLP before replacing the GPU, but I can't do that if I don't already have a working GPU.

Also I'm confused about the heatsink. Would I need to remove the heatsink from the old Radeon HD 4670 and put it on the new compatible replacement GPU? Or would the new GPU come with it's own heatsink that I would use instead?
 
Shnite said:
Just exactly like in the picture?
Click to expand...
YES, exactly like in the picture.
If you plan to use a AMD s7100x in an iMac - glue the ODD temperature sensor near to the GPU temperature sensor.
Cut a silicon termal pad to the size of the ODD sensor and use some epoxy/resin at the edges of the sensor.
Use a clamp or some wight to press the sensor to the surface of the heatsink during the hardening of the resin.
The thermal pad will give a good coupling an electric insulation to the ODD sensor.
Gently remove the original adhesive tape from the ODD sensor before ! Clean the little pcb with acetone free brake cleaner or n-hexan.
The temperature readings won't differ from the original GPU sensor after that.
 
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evh5150_it said:
Thank you for your reply. I've tried with -6 option ad it seems that the rom has been programmed. But I still have the Black Screen. Is there something else to do? I've rebooted with option key pressed but the screen is still dead.
Click to expand...
I had a similar issue when flashing m WX7100. turns out that there were different variants for the card and the one I tried first didn't work. When I loaded a different one, all was good.

So check out to see if there are different variants on your card
 
willowthewisp said:
Cut a silicon termal pad to the size of the ODD sensor and use some epoxy/resin at the edges of the sensor.
Use a clamp or some wight to press the sensor to the surface of the heatsink during the hardening of the resin.
The thermal pad will give a good coupling an electric insulation to the ODD sensor.
Click to expand...
Do you have a photo?
Would it be wrong to simply fill it with epoxy glue?

 

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