Mid 2010 IMAC Help

[e_1_k_o]

Hi! I have been a windows user and PC builder hobbyist eversince I learned using a PC. Then I was provided a mac platform computer at work and found out how awesome these machines are! I tinkered with the work IMAC and did some minor upgrades. (RAM) Which is relatively easy than working on upgrading WIN platformed hardware.

Recently one of the offices in our BLDG upgraded all their IMACs and was about to dispose of the old ones. In short, I got one of them. lol I fixed the IMAC, because it doesnt successfully boot and gets stuck on the apple logo. I got it to work and reinstalled the high sierra OS. After the successful fix,I tried to download the Apps I need and I found out that the system is not compatible with the new apps since its an Old IOS. ?

I found out that for this IMAC to work with new apps, I need to upgrade the to atleast to the Mojave version. I looked at the specs and its the high-end CPU config of this particular model except for the RAM and learned that the GPU too will be an issue. I plan to do some upgrades but I am not certain if I need to upgrade the CPU and change the GPU. The RAM will be a given upgrade, but the other two components I mentioned is still a big "?' for me. Please help as I am very excited to turn this Imac to a MAXXED out beast. Heres the current configuration of the machine. I got the info from the "about this MAC".


OS: macOS High Sierra ver. 10/13/6
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010)
2.93 GHz Intel Core i7
8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
ATI Radeon HD 5750 1024 MB

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac11,3
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.93 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 8 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Boot ROM Version: 99.0.0.0.0
SMC Version (system): 1.59f2
Serial Number (system): QP03504RGXU
Hardware UUID: D89DEAA6-D684-51F9-99BC-795FD7D80B5E

thank you in advance for the advise..​

 

[Roman78]

You could replace the GPU. SO Mojave or Catalina would run better on it. But it also runs with the default GPU, just tey the DosDude Patcher.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Please help as I am very excited to turn this Imac to a MAXXED out beast. Heres the current configuration of the machine.

Very easy:
- Buy a mini M1
- buy 1 USB-C to mini DisplayPort
Now connect the mini M1 to your iMac 2010
You've got yourself the MAXXED out beast at only 699$, with much less trouble than opening the iMac to work inside it.

 

[B_rad_G]

I have the exact same model. it was a hand-me-down when I bought my wife an upgrade several years ago. The RAM upgrade is simple. The GPU... not so much. I looked into it and decided it wasn't worth the trouble. Unless something has changed... The DosDude Patcher doesn't play well with the ATI Radeon HD 5750 1024 MB. I tried it once. He did have a warning on the site that warned me beforehand. It was virtually unusable. I ended up having to reinstall the OS.
I've basically been using it as a second monitor for my Macbook Air M1. It works great but certainly runs on the hot side.

 

[Jack Neill]

OCLP and the graphical patch works great with 10.15.7 on terascale 1/2 cards.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I have the exact same model. it was a hand-me-down when I bought my wife an upgrade several years ago. The RAM upgrade is simple. The GPU... not so much. I looked into it and decided it wasn't worth the trouble. Unless something has changed... The DosDude Patcher doesn't play well with the ATI Radeon HD 5750 1024 MB. I tried it once. He did have a warning on the site that warned me beforehand. It was virtually unusable. I ended up having to reinstall the OS.
I've basically been using it as a second monitor for my Macbook Air M1. It works great but certainly runs on the hot side.

Exactly. It doesn't work the trouble, once you already have a newer Mac.