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

[Paus Nefzen]

Hi all guys, hope to post in the correct thread sorry if i made a mistake.
I have an imac 11,2 and i upgraded it with ram, ssd and a new graphics, a nVidia Quadro K1100M 2 gb ddr5.
The performance are really good, but sometimes i got this issue in the photo app or within firefox.
Picture attached
thanks for your help
Andrea

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

It's not cheaper when you already own an MXM graphics card.

Have you considered the cost of time others have to spend to cook a vBIOS for your special needs?

 

[TomBrady]

Hello guys I’ll never be able to use my 2011 for tdm with my PC 💔 so I’m getting rid of my flashed wx7100 I assume they’re still kinda rare (sorry if I shouldn’t post this here 🥺). PM me.

 

[90Ninety]

I have an iMac 11,2 (Mid 2010 EMC 2389) . The 4760 GPU does not support metal or 3D acceleration .. I wanted a good AMD card ( for good Linux support) , is the M5100 a good idea, which other options do I have ?

 

[Vic’s 2011 27” iMac]

Hello,

I have a 2011 27" iMac that I'm trying to upgrade. The original GPU was perfectly fine, but I wanted metal support, so I upgraded to a FirePro M5100. I flashed the GPU with the VBIOS from the Github listed on page 1 using a CH341A programmer. Before swapping the graphics card, I installed macOS Monterey using OCLP, including root patching. Unfortunately, after the swap, the internal display remains completely black—no image or backlight. I've tried modifying the config.plist (framebuffer enable), but I can't say I know what I'm doing, and nothing has worked so far.

I realized that the FirePro M5100 is listed as incompatible with my 12,2 iMac, and I accept my lapse in judgment. I chose the GPU was because it was cheap, and I was hoping to make it work. I'm wondering if there's a workaround or patch that might get the internal panel working (something I might have missed while reading through this forum). If anyone has done it or has any suggestions (even if it’s "give up"), I’d really appreciate your help.

 

[Vic’s 2011 27” iMac]

Hello,

I have a 2011 27" iMac that I'm trying to upgrade. The original GPU was perfectly fine, but I wanted metal support, so I upgraded to a FirePro M5100. I flashed the GPU with the VBIOS from the Github listed on page 1 using a CH341A programmer. Before swapping the graphics card, I installed macOS Monterey using OCLP, including root patching. Unfortunately, after the swap, the internal display remains completely black—no image or backlight. I've tried modifying the config.plist (framebuffer enable), but I can't say I know what I'm doing, and nothing has worked so far.

I realized that the FirePro M5100 is listed as incompatible with my 12,2 iMac, and I accept my lapse in judgment. I chose the GPU was because it was cheap, and I was hoping to make it work. I'm wondering if there's a workaround or patch that might get the internal panel working (something I might have missed while reading through this forum). If anyone has done it or has any suggestions (even if it’s "give up"), I’d really appreciate your help.

Thank you for this post as I am also trying to upgrade my 2011 27 inch Mac with a new graphics card that has metal. I read the M5100 would not work and I’m wondering if there is anyone out there that knows what graphics card I can use.

These new computers are just like new cars….you just can’t fix them and do any upgrades. Everything is disposable nowadays.

I’d rather fix my 2011 instead of spending $3k+ for a new computer.

 

[Vic’s 2011 27” iMac]

Hello,

I have a 2011 27" iMac that I'm trying to upgrade. The original GPU was perfectly fine, but I wanted metal support, so I upgraded to a FirePro M5100. I flashed the GPU with the VBIOS from the Github listed on page 1 using a CH341A programmer. Before swapping the graphics card, I installed macOS Monterey using OCLP, including root patching. Unfortunately, after the swap, the internal display remains completely black—no image or backlight. I've tried modifying the config.plist (framebuffer enable), but I can't say I know what I'm doing, and nothing has worked so far.

I realized that the FirePro M5100 is listed as incompatible with my 12,2 iMac, and I accept my lapse in judgment. I chose the GPU was because it was cheap, and I was hoping to make it work. I'm wondering if there's a workaround or patch that might get the internal panel working (something I might have missed while reading through this forum). If anyone has done it or has any suggestions (even if it’s "give up"), I’d really appreciate your help.

I just read your second post…..did you get the M 5100 to work ?

 

[SubDriver]

I have an iMac 11,2 (Mid 2010 EMC 2389) . The 4760 GPU does not support metal or 3D acceleration .. I wanted a good AMD card ( for good Linux support) , is the M5100 a good idea, which other options do I have ?

Post #1 in this thread has a complete accounting of graphics cards that can be used for these conversions. If you haven't spent time reading that post, I recommend you start there.

 

[SubDriver]

Thank you for this post as I am also trying to upgrade my 2011 27 inch Mac with a new graphics card that has metal. I read the M5100 would not work and I’m wondering if there is anyone out there that knows what graphics card I can use.

These new computers are just like new cars….you just can’t fix them and do any upgrades. Everything is disposable nowadays.

I’d rather fix my 2011 instead of spending $3k+ for a new computer.

Post #1 in this thread has a complete accounting of graphics cards that can be used for these conversions. If you haven't spent time reading that post, I recommend you start there.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Thank you for this post as I am also trying to upgrade my 2011 27 inch Mac with a new graphics card that has metal. I read the M5100 would not work and I’m wondering if there is anyone out there that knows what graphics card I can use.

These new computers are just like new cars….you just can’t fix them and do any upgrades. Everything is disposable nowadays.

I’d rather fix my 2011 instead of spending $3k+ for a new computer.

It depends on what you plan to do with the computer.
For computing power and ease of use, a base model Mac Mini M4 is much better than the obsolete core i7-2600 inside your iMac 2011. And it costs 599$, not $3k+

So, if you still feel attached to your iMac 2011 beautiful 27" display. I suggest you convert it to a stand-alone display and buy a Mini M4.

If you still want to use your iMac 2011, for less heavy jobs, then the Quadro Kepler series, like K3100M or K4100m is my suggestion. K1100m or K2100m also works, cost less to buy, too.

I bought Quadro M4000m, though, as I plan to install and use only Windows on my iMac 2011.