iM 4,1-14,4 iMac mid2010 27" + OCLP

[tabby72]

Deal all,
would you please advise a mxm-3b video card in order to upgrade my iMac 27" mid-2010 to Monterey by OCLP? I'd rather not to modify the heatskink, and I'll stay on a AMD card.

I really don't know how to choose....

Any clue?
Thanks!

 

[Bigwaff]

Have you read this page?

GitHub - Ausdauersportler/IMAC-EFI-BOOT-SCREEN: How to create an EFI boot screen vBIOS for Apple Late 2009 to Mid 2011 iMac systems using AMD MXM graphics cards

How to create an EFI boot screen vBIOS for Apple Late 2009 to Mid 2011 iMac systems using AMD MXM graphics cards - Ausdauersportler/IMAC-EFI-BOOT-SCREEN

github.com

 

[tabby72]

Yes, thanks, but my question was about which card is the easiest to find and install. I'm not a gamer, just want to upgrade to a metal supported GPU. Any clue?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Deal all,
would you please advise a mxm-3b video card in order to upgrade my iMac 27" mid-2010 to Monterey by OCLP? I'd rather not to modify the heatskink, and I'll stay on a AMD card.

I really don't know how to choose....

Any clue?
Thanks!

For iMac 2009/2010:
Good price vs performance option: Firepro M6100 (after flashing the vBIOS, it acts just like an Apple card, with boot screen)
Luxury: RX480 or WX7100
Exotic: RX5500 (mxm)

 

[tabby72]

Thanks for your reply. I went for a M6100, modified my heatskink with dremel, applied thermal paste and put on.
See the attached pic.

Recap: iMac 27" mid2010 Core i7 2.93GHz, 16 GB RAM with native High Sierra native on first SSD and OCLP Monterey on second SSD. I can select which one to start at boot. Or boot from usb key with GRML linux .

BUT something *very* weird happens:
1) no vbios flash at all: High Sierra sees the card as AMD Radeon R9 M380 2GB and it works well. Monterey OCLP is slow as death. Mouse moves jerkily.
2) flashing vbios with EG/M6100-HynixBFR-EnableGop.rom: High Sierra sees the M6100 wth 14MB (!) BUT it keeps rebooting like crazy after few minutes with no relevance with GPU activity (temp is OK). Monterey OCLP is slow as hell and reboots as well like High Sierra.
3) flashing vbios with EG/M6100-General-EnableGop.rom: High Sierra doesn't boot at all (it freezes at 65% of boot progress bar). Monterey OCLP boots but is even slowest than before.

I noticed that VRAM on video board is labelled "Hynyx H5GQ2H24AFR-R0C", and not "BFR". So i don't know how to go on at this point, 'cause there's no vbios for AFR vram chipset.

Here's amdvbflash output after 1st flash (original -> Hynyx):

Old SSID: 014B
New SSID: 04A4
Old P/N: 113-C6005T-009
New P/N: BR44933.001
Old DeviceID: 6640
New DeviceID: 6640
Old Product Name: Emerald PROA GDDR5 1GB 318e/300m
New Product Name: iMac / Compal Brooks Saturn XT C60001 A1 GDDR5 2GB 300e/150m
Old BIOS Version: 015.049.000.003.000000
New BIOS Version: 015.040.000.001.044933
Flash type: M25P10/c
Burst size is 256
20000/20000h bytes programmed
20000/20000h bytes verified


Any clue?
Thanks!!

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Thanks for your reply. I went for a M6100, modified my heatskink with dremel, applied thermal paste and put on.
See the attached pic.

Recap: iMac 27" mid2010 Core i7 2.93GHz, 16 GB RAM with native High Sierra native on first SSD and OCLP Monterey on second SSD. I can select which one to start at boot. Or boot from usb key with GRML linux .

BUT something *very* weird happens:
1) no vbios flash at all: High Sierra sees the card as AMD Radeon R9 M380 2GB and it works well. Monterey OCLP is slow as death. Mouse moves jerkily.
2) flashing vbios with EG/M6100-HynixBFR-EnableGop.rom: High Sierra sees the M6100 wth 14MB (!) BUT it keeps rebooting like crazy after few minutes with no relevance with GPU activity (temp is OK). Monterey OCLP is slow as hell and reboots as well like High Sierra.
3) flashing vbios with EG/M6100-General-EnableGop.rom: High Sierra doesn't boot at all (it freezes at 65% of boot progress bar). Monterey OCLP boots but is even slowest than before.

I noticed that VRAM on video board is labelled "Hynyx H5GQ2H24AFR-R0C", and not "BFR". So i don't know how to go on at this point, 'cause there's no vbios for AFR vram chipset.

Here's amdvbflash output after 1st flash (original -> Hynyx):

Old SSID: 014B
New SSID: 04A4
Old P/N: 113-C6005T-009
New P/N: BR44933.001
Old DeviceID: 6640
New DeviceID: 6640
Old Product Name: Emerald PROA GDDR5 1GB 318e/300m
New Product Name: iMac / Compal Brooks Saturn XT C60001 A1 GDDR5 2GB 300e/150m
Old BIOS Version: 015.049.000.003.000000
New BIOS Version: 015.040.000.001.044933
Flash type: M25P10/c
Burst size is 256
20000/20000h bytes programmed
20000/20000h bytes verified


Any clue?
Thanks!!

If you can see the boot screen, then I can assume that the vBIOS flash (GOP mod) was successful.
Next step is PRAM reset and re-patching OCLP to match with the new GPU. (from option 3) above)
I remember I got some issues with the M6100m which I didn't know whether the flashing went fine or not. It booted directly to High Sierra and works fine.
After reflashing with the new VBIOS (General) I never tried High Sierra anymore. Just prepare the OCLP EFI on another machine, then install Monterey on it. It took me the whole night to finally install Monterey. After that I swore I would never install freshly Mac OS again.

 

[tabby72]

I think I didn't get you.
I already did a PRAM reset without success. What I'm trying to know is what-the-h*ll version of vBios I have to flash in this card and where do I find it.
As said, with General, High Sierra doesn't boot at all (and I have to maintain this version till I'm sure the OCLP Monterey is fully functional). I read somewhere that the Device ID 0x6640 is known to High Sierra and associated to AMD Radeon R9 M380 card, so now it's using this driver. I should change the ID to 0x6646, but can't find the right vBIOS.
Btw, the installation of Monterey on 2nd SSD was done by the book. First with USB installation, then installation on SSD then post install root patch.
What am I missing?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I think I didn't get you.
I already did a PRAM reset without success. What I'm trying to know is what-the-h*ll version of vBios I have to flash in this card and where do I find it.
As said, with General, High Sierra doesn't boot at all (and I have to maintain this version till I'm sure the OCLP Monterey is fully functional). I read somewhere that the Device ID 0x6640 is known to High Sierra and associated to AMD Radeon R9 M380 card, so now it's using this driver. I should change the ID to 0x6646, but can't find the right vBIOS.
Btw, the installation of Monterey on 2nd SSD was done by the book. First with USB installation, then installation on SSD then post install root patch.
What am I missing?

Now I got no clue.
I have the same red card M6100m for my Imac 2009.
The general GOP vBIOS works for my case.