iM 4,1-14,4 mid 2010 IMAC up grade question

[Radmcg]

Hey guys first post. Been leaching off your information for years but just replaced HD with SSD in old 2009 iMac and used Dosdudes Catalina patcher to upgrade it and got the refurb bug. Works great.
I have another old iMac mid 2010 27" I3 processor 11,3 with ATI radeon HD 5670 in it. Works fine just slow. If I read Dosdudes known problems right this video card will not work with Catalina patcher. I was going to upgrade the drive to SSD so I ordered it. Since I was going to be in the back I figured I would upgrade the CPU to I7 870 so I found a cheap used one ordered it.
Here is my question friends says to replace thermal paste on GPU while I'm in there. Is that true? If I'm going to do that why not just replace GPU. Question is what is the EASIEST best bang for my buck. Have read everything I can and watched Youtube videos but still not sure if I can handle that change, especially the VBIOS flash part. Also really don't what to go grinding on my heat sink if I don't have to. Is there a reasonable card @100.00 that will fit on the 2 pipe heat sink in the 2010 27". The guide I read on here looks like AMD WX 4130 or 4150 might work?
Or should I just upgrade the CPU and SSD and stay with High Sierra?
AHA
Rad

 

[sdfox7]

According to EveryMac specs, that model could be configured with AMD 5750 (1GB) which would double your available GPU memory. Once you start looking at other video cards you're probably going to need to update the cooling so you don't burn the card out.

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-i3-3.2-27-inch-aluminum-mid-2010-specs.html

Your needs may differ but if it was me, to extend the lifetime of the machine I'd probably skip the GPU update, max out the RAM to 16GB and add SSD, and either use dosdude's High Sierra or use OCLP which would provide legacy hardware acceleration and get you a newer version of MacOS than Catalina. Even if you left the existing GPU, SSDs and DDR3 RAM are pretty cheap right now. I've used OCLP on non-Metal graphics cards such as my 2011 iMac with 512MB GPU 6770M and it runs great with Monterey. Granted that machine has a quad-core i5 with 32GB RAM.

https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/MODELS.html

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Hey guys first post. Been leaching off your information for years but just replaced HD with SSD in old 2009 iMac and used Dosdudes Catalina patcher to upgrade it and got the refurb bug. Works great.
I have another old iMac mid 2010 27" I3 processor 11,3 with ATI radeon HD 5670 in it. Works fine just slow. If I read Dosdudes known problems right this video card will not work with Catalina patcher. I was going to upgrade the drive to SSD so I ordered it. Since I was going to be in the back I figured I would upgrade the CPU to I7 870 so I found a cheap used one ordered it.
Here is my question friends says to replace thermal paste on GPU while I'm in there. Is that true? If I'm going to do that why not just replace GPU. Question is what is the EASIEST best bang for my buck. Have read everything I can and watched Youtube videos but still not sure if I can handle that change, especially the VBIOS flash part. Also really don't what to go grinding on my heat sink if I don't have to. Is there a reasonable card @100.00 that will fit on the 2 pipe heat sink in the 2010 27". The guide I read on here looks like AMD WX 4130 or 4150 might work?
Or should I just upgrade the CPU and SSD and stay with High Sierra?
AHA
Rad

Best bang for the buck would be a Firepro M6100m (~25$)

FirePro M6100 GDDR5 2GB Video Graphics Card With X-Bracket 216-0843006 109-c600a1-00c_02 For Dell M6700 M6800 iMac A1312 0MG0X9 - AliExpress 7

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

 

[Radmcg]

Thanks guys. Went ahead and bought ssd OWC and I7 870 used. Found a refurb WX 4150 Green dell card and got an ok deal on it. Hope that doesn't end up biting me in the butt but Im going to try to flash it with USB method. Any help appreciated going to try to use the post on hear as my guide. Fingers crossed. Any insight from anyone that has done this would be appreciated especially know issues.
Rad

 

[Radmcg]

Looks like it will work without moding the heat sink but needs a copper shim. Macrumors post number 1 link says needs 0.3 to 0.8 mm shim. Don't see how I could measure this under the card. There not expensive but looks like trial and error kind of thing. They come in packs of 5 but can't find one of assorted thicknesses on amazon. Any suggestions how to proceed?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Looks like it will work without moding the heat sink but needs a copper shim. Macrumors post number 1 link says needs 0.3 to 0.8 mm shim. Don't see how I could measure this under the card. There not expensive but looks like trial and error kind of thing. They come in packs of 5 but can't find one of assorted thicknesses on amazon. Any suggestions how to proceed?

I bought 3 kinds of copper shims: 0.5mm, 1mm and 1.5mm. (10 each)
The 0.5mm fitted well.
Other kinds are stock for other types of GPU (perhaps).
The thickness of thermal pads applied on the RAM chips should also be the thin type.

 

[Old Mac Geezer]

I have a CPU related question for these machines. I have looked into the Core i7 860S/870S, and the Xeon L3426, as possible replacements for my Core i3 550. From what I have found, the Core i7 CPU's only support up to 16gb of RAM, whereas the Xeon L3426 supports up to 64gb. Is it possible to use 64gb (or even 32gb) in a mid 2010 iMac, or will Apple's firmware not allow it?

 

[Old Mac Geezer]

I bought 3 kinds of copper shims: 0.5mm, 1mm and 1.5mm. (10 each)
The 0.5mm fitted well.
Other kinds are stock for other types of GPU (perhaps).
The thickness of thermal pads applied on the RAM chips should also be the thin type.

What are the dimensions of the shim needed for the graphics card upgrade when using certain cards? I see 15mmx15mm and 20mmx20mm on ebay.

 

[Radmcg]

First question answer. I am running a 2.93 I7(I upgraded from the I3). I think it is the 870S? and I have 32 GB of RAM recognized by my 2010 iMac. Running Ventura fine so far. I don't do anything heavy with it. When I did do some dvd ripping the GPU got up to 80C. The heat sink was 72C. A bigger gap than I would like but ran everything fine.
Second question the shims I used were 15mm x 15mm. I bought a set with different thicknesses ranging from .3mm to 1mm on amazon. Worked perfect for the wx4150. I ended up using a .5mm if I recall.

There is a video on Youtube from Curtis Gross? He put a xenon in his and it worked fine as far as he could tell. He did a video about the replacement and the GPU install and flash.

 

[Old Mac Geezer]

First question answer. I am running a 2.93 I7(I upgraded from the I3). I think it is the 870S? and I have 32 GB of RAM recognized by my 2010 iMac. Running Ventura fine so far. I don't do anything heavy with it. When I did do some dvd ripping the GPU got up to 80C. The heat sink was 72C. A bigger gap than I would like but ran everything fine.
Second question the shims I used were 15mm x 15mm. I bought a set with different thicknesses ranging from .3mm to 1mm on amazon. Worked perfect for the wx4150. I ended up using a .5mm if I recall.

There is a video on Youtube from Curtis Gross? He put a xenon in his and it worked fine as far as he could tell. He did a video about the replacement and the GPU install and flash.

OK. Great. I was looking at all three because the price on the 870S is outrageous, considering the 860S gives most of the performance, for less than half the price. The Xeon is even cheaper, recognizes more RAM, and slightly outperforms the i7 860S, according to Passmark. It's not as fast as the 870S, but at the price, it's a better buy. It also uses less power.

 

[Maggehagge]

Hey guys first post. Been leaching off your information for years but just replaced HD with SSD in old 2009 iMac and used Dosdudes Catalina patcher to upgrade it and got the refurb bug. Works great.
I have another old iMac mid 2010 27" I3 processor 11,3 with ATI radeon HD 5670 in it. Works fine just slow. If I read Dosdudes known problems right this video card will not work with Catalina patcher. I was going to upgrade the drive to SSD so I ordered it. Since I was going to be in the back I figured I would upgrade the CPU to I7 870 so I found a cheap used one ordered it.
Here is my question friends says to replace thermal paste on GPU while I'm in there. Is that true? If I'm going to do that why not just replace GPU. Question is what is the EASIEST best bang for my buck. Have read everything I can and watched Youtube videos but still not sure if I can handle that change, especially the VBIOS flash part. Also really don't what to go grinding on my heat sink if I don't have to. Is there a reasonable card @100.00 that will fit on the 2 pipe heat sink in the 2010 27". The guide I read on here looks like AMD WX 4130 or 4150 might work?
Or should I just upgrade the CPU and SSD and stay with High Sierra?
AHA
Rad

get 875k and overclock with my mod

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

What are the dimensions of the shim needed for the graphics card upgrade when using certain cards? I see 15mmx15mm and 20mmx20mm on ebay.

That was also a big issue for me.
Normally I opt for the biggest one available (but as cheap as possible)
But when I bought the S7100X. They are all too small.
So I had to buy a 100x100mm copper plate and cut it out to fit.