Can everyone who sees this comment thumb it up so Luke can see this. As I said in the comments the last 3 videos, you need a Card with VBIOS DCB tables that lines up with the iMacs EDP (embedded display port aka the LCD connector to have video) such a the Nvidia 765m and 780m that are from the Dell Precisions and Alienware laptops. Please read the 2011 iMac MXM thread on Macrumors fourms. Even better join the discussion I'm on there as well as many others who have successfully done this. The thread is called "2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade" we're at 60 pages of discussion.
I thought it didn't work because the 980M isn't supported? Shouldn't he be looking for something from this list: support.apple.com/en-il/HT202823 or similar? Also, didn't he place the card before installing the kext?
Why doesn't he just flash the card... He's got that Xserve or for 20 bucks on eBay get a flashing tool... Someone really needs to put up a video on RUclips so many people looking for this information.
I have contributed in thats forum page, and have also been down this path........ I was unable to get either a 780m or 980m working....... after buying many cards I finally gave up!
I don't get why so many comments clearly show the viewer doesn't comprehend what's going on here, even in basic terms. The machine physically won't boot with the card they have in this video. At all. It isn't about flashing firmware for macOS, or anything like that -- they aren't "not getting a boot screen" and they just need to flash something, no, the machine *will not boot* with this card due to it not carrying a particular feature set which other commenters and Luke himself have described in other comments here. Luke explained the situation in very direct, but still simple enough for anyone to understand terms in the video, but for some reason, people don't get that... it's almost as if they didn't bother watching the video before they commented, even though like a minute in Luke mentions the lack of a boot screen in detail, showing they are both very much aware of what happens when you use an unsupported graphics card in a later MacOS build. EDIT: There's talk going around here (and replies that mysteriously disappeared) about flashing the card with the dell / alienware bios, what have you. Yeah, if that's a thing that could be done, sure, it may work well enough, but that's NOT what most people are talking about here, which is clear from context.
I already have an iMac 2017 5k, but recently bought an iMac 2011 27 inch core i7 3.6 gz, with 12gb RAM, 2gb VRAM, 4 cores with 8 threats for around 400 dlls, and im very happy with it. It aged so well, and is a very solid and fast machine. I can do pretty the same things on both computers, the 2011 doesn't have airdrop but I can share screens and edit documents using the network and its so native and fast.
Luke, when you mount a 980M it's gonna use more PCI-E lanes so you will have to dismount the super drive and the second drive. Only boot with one SATA device (the boot drive).
As an early days Hackintosher, I feel every second of your pains and frustrations! Fantastic work, and you got balls kid! I can not wait for the next video!
Yep Bansaku, I'm with you. I build a number of cheap Hackintoshes myself, plus I have a 2011 27 in. iMac. BTW, when I got the iMac (for $20 a year and a half ago) the video card was borked. Following instructions in a RUclips video, I disassembled the iMac, removed the original video card, stuck it in the oven for 8 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius, re-assembled it, plugged it in and (fortunately!) it worked. It's been working ever since (I'm writing this on it now). It was a big job, and with the installation of an SSD and a new 2TB drive, it took the better part of a day. So I feel for the frustration of Luke and Noah when things didn't go as planned. Looking forward to the next video as I know I will eventually need to do the same for my 2011 iMac. Keep up the good fight guys!
Waiting for the day there's going to be a tutorial on this with exact things to do to swap that card. Not going to burn my fingers on it till that day.
Tengo un iMac 27" 2011 i7 3.4ghz, 24gb ram, con una tarjeta AMD Radeon HD 6970 1GB, esta tarjeta gráfica la cambie por la Nvidia GTX 765M de un Alienware y me funciono sin problemas, a excepción de tener que descargar una aplicación para controlar los brillos, nada grave, pero funciona.
Luke, it turns out that the card you tried to upgrade with is based on the later Maxwell architechture, the iMacs can only work with Kepler based cards. Please try again with one of the cards listed at the beginning of the Macrumours forum thread. Don't give up!
Hello Luke. I appreciate the time and effort you put into your videos. I am wondering if you ever sell any of your Apples after you complete your projects?
Technically the 860M also works but there is more work to be done in creating a custom VBIOS workaround for it. Check out page 1 of this link: forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/
Oh Man! I replaced the HDD and Optical drive in my sister in laws's iMac, same year, the internals look similar.Your's is a 27" though, hers was a 21". I could probably do this for that machine. These iMacs can definitely get a few more years of use. Steve Jobs may have had his fingers in these, maybe early in the design process. Finally watched the second half of the video, sorry that it didn’t work but I learned a lot watching! Thanks!
4:40 This is what I meant with my comment on your previous video, some models does actually have the screws on the other side, which makes it so much easier to get the GPU out, It's literally 3 screws then it's out. Oh well :)
@@maikkaune seems there is an element of truth to the OP - RX580 is rebadged as the AMD WX7100. It's not easy to get hold of the mobile version but it's far and away the most powerful card you could reliably use in this imac. Check out this thread for all the info on the GPU upgrade topic: forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/
makos asimakis lessons I have just learned the hard way upgraded power supply on its way 480 dollars spent so far on a 2010 iMac 24 inch the DONT DO THIS COMMENT IS VALID
Theres a LOT more to this topic and it's not something to just attempt casually. The best place for all the latest info on this topic is at: forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/ Page 1 has a list of compatible cards and the current state of functionality as well as workarounds for many of the cards listed...
@@SocialSpit Because SJ and BG made a special agreement back in the day, sadly corporate policies of today make both companies barely recognizable nothing more than shells of companies that used to create products to serve the people. Now with Apple in particular catering to their investors and top tier customers only, as we know Innovation has never been Microsoft strongpoint.
M. Guillermo agreed, I think windows 10 just sucks. And I’m not happy with what the fook apple has been doing lately, they have disabled all previous versions of iTunes except for the Windows 10 metro version, so that I cannot maintain my iPhones on any of the machines I used to have iTunes installed on, and all of my back ups are totally useless. And just recently apple performed a server site update to their Xcode system, invalidating all previous versions of THAT as well, so that I can no longer use Cydia impactor to sideload apps onto my iPhone, unless I buy a $100 developer certificate
You could flash the Alienware vBIOS on the GPU. I know it sounds like I'm trolling, but flashing different manufacturer's vBIOS on GPU's is quite common for compatibility purposes. I've done it before on an ASUS 750 Ti for a hackintosh. Flashed PNY, and it worked like a charm. Just make sure you backup your OG vBIOS so you can restore it if it doesn't work. (You're going to need to use a different primary GPU if you want to flash this one back)
GTX980m does not have an Dell/Alienware rom as far as I can find. The max is GTX880m which seems to have an Dell/Alienware rom. I doubt even the 880m will work, I dont know about this one, but by the looks on the iFixit thread it could work.. Do keep in mind TDP wattage could be high, or too high for the iMac 2011 ! I would say stick to a max of 100Watt usage cards ! But like Highvoltage12v bellow sates, stick to known working cards ! like Dell/Alienware GTX765m or GTX780m. See thread on macrumors as stated !!
Hi Luke, Great stuff mate. Keep up the good work. I have one question for you or anyone else here. I both iMac 27” 2011 i5 2,7 250ssd 8gb ddr3 and 512mb vram for, you wont believe this less then 300$. In superb condition. So my question is, since i have it available, can i upgrade it with AMD Radeon HD 6970 2gb ddr5 taken from Alienware laptop. My thinking is since it is a Apple supported card it should just be strait forward swap. Am i right?
GTX 980M --> 145w TDP [Desktop Version 980 on Laptop and not renameed to 990m] GTX 980m --> 100w TDP GTX 780m --> 122w TDP [it work on 2011 iMac 27 is Work nice and no problem] HD 6970m --> 75w TDP -- I think your GTX980m is not 980m is 980M and iMac Graphics TDP limit is set on 120w ~ 130w -- I think problem is on here? --> TDP limit and wrong version on 980M
8:40 Yeah. If you have a 2011 iMac and the GPU dies, and you can't get the GPU disabled in software/firmware, just remove the card, as long as the machine still works.
You should be aware for future videos: please don't ever use a microfibre cloth to rest electronic components on. Microfibre is VERY susceptible to building up static charges, so using them to rest something like a graphics card on is an extremely bad idea. That is one of the quickest ways to kill a GPU or anything with electrical contact points or pins for that matter. The wooden table surface is perfectly adequate. Either that, or a cardboard sheet, rubberised mousemat or a specific builders mat like those sold by Gamers Nexus should be used instead.
You probably could’ve flashed the cards bios with that, I’m sure dell/Alienware has it on their website, and it would probably resolve the problem, instead of buying and reselling
Are you planning on making another 2011 iMac upgrade video? I love these series of videos! I have a core i3 late 2011 education iMac. I bought it cause I wanted an iMac as a second computer and got it in great condition for $100. It’s a great machine for light work but do you know how to add Bluetooth hardware?
Found this on amzn: Lemorele Wireless USB WiFi Adapter Bluetooth 4.2 5G/2.5G Dual Band Wireless Adapter AC 600Mbps Mini WiFi Dongle for Desktop Laptop PC Projectors Support Windows XP/7/8/10, Mac OS 10.6-10.14
Isn't thermal paste there to cover any gaps between the two flat surfaces? In an ideal world, if they were both perfectly flat you wouldn't need any. So isn't it a good you can see your head in it?Means most of the area was directly touching the heatsink?
Thanks for warning me against brand new boards. I was seconds away from buying one because it's £60 cheaper than the dell specific stuff but now I don't care about the price difference that much. If I've spent £320 on the 27" 2010 iMac itself, a further £42 for an i7 and £35 for 32GB of Ram then spending £300 more on a GPU rather than £240 isn't too big a deal. I still need to get myself an SSD and a new logic board (Had a damaged sensor connector, tried to fix with a soldering iron, knocked a resistor or two and broke it. Completely my bad. Still works though and can be used as normal but the CPU is stuck on constant thermal throttling at 1.17Ghz until I replace the board...) So I'm nowhere near done yet. Still though. 27" 2010 iMac £320 i7-870 £42 32GB Ram £35 Replacement Logic Board £100 GTX 980m GPU £300 500GB SSD £72 Total Cost ~£869 Minus the sold parts i5 760 that it came with £12 4GB of ram £10 Ageing 500GB HDD £20 (Had final cut on it.) Damaged logic board £50-£100 Old HD 5750 £60-£100 Actual cost £627 ~ £717 Or £527 ~ £617 if I hadn't broken the board. Way cheaper than anything newer than 2013 and just as powerful if not faster! If you are confident that you can handle upgrading it (which is easy by the way) I would recommend. Perhaps getting a 2011 iMac would have been better for the newer CPU support but between a 1st and 2nd gen i7 the difference isn't much. 10%-20% maybe. (Bought the iMac on a whim. Never planned on it, never had one before. I just saw an ad for one and had the money for it.) If I didn't need a new board I would have bought the SSD by now as well as the GPU that I just ordered whilst writing this but actual performance comes first. Speed comes second.
Nightcore, you can't use a 980M, it's Maxwell based, you need a Kepler card to work in your iMac. Check out the latest info and compatible cards at: forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/
The vBIOS and the EFI firmware are separate. Many cards will work in Macs (especially Mac Pros) but only Apple cards, or ones flashed with the Apple EFI firmware can display boot screen and boot switcher. A card can work without the firmware
@@lukemiani "the vBIOS and the EFI firmware are separate" well no shit sherlock but still the fact that your ignoring this is dumb, just flash vBIOS you lazy bum and see if it fixes it, there's a reason you can reflash a videos cards bios, overclockers do this all the time to fix problems and to get better overclocks even people in the computer industry do this also there a reason why ThechPowerUp keeps a big archive of GPU bioss
I have a newer card that isn't supported by the Apple drivers, how do I install the web drivers that enable it if I can't even boot? This is a common problem for people who buy bleeding-edge cards, but there's a pretty simple solution. The NVIDIA drivers, both the one from Apple and the web driver, will not load if you have nv_disable=1 in your boot args. That will let you boot to an unaccelerated desktop, at which point you should be able to install the web drivers for your current OS. You should then remove the nv_disable flag from your boot args and reboot, and you should be up and running. Assuming you have no other boot args, you can set the flag like this: sudo nvram boot-args="nv_disable=1" Then, once you've installed the web driver and are about to reboot, you can remove the flag and enable the web driver like this: sudo nvram boot-args="nvda_drv=1" Obviously if you have other settings in your boot args string, you should add them at each step as well. This is particularly important for people with Maxwell based cards like the GTX 750 or GTX 9xx series, as the stock Apple drivers currently do not support the Maxwell architecture and will cause a kernel panic if they are enabled. This has been described as a "reboot loop", where the system will continually reboot after hitting the kernel panic during startup. If you are using a Mac Pro with one of these cards, you will still need an EFI card to drive a monitor so that you can update to the new web driver. This card (e.g. a GT 120) will be running in unaccelerated mode so everything will be slow, but the EFI on that card will allow the Mac Pro to light up the display connected to it. An alternative is to connect from another system via VNC or Screen Sharing, as this will work even when the NVIDIA drivers are disabled. People using Hackintoshes don't have to worry about using a second card as the Hackintosh boot loader will initialize the card using the VBIOS and thus the monitor will light up, but you will still need to run with nv_disable=1 in order to avoid the kernel panic until you have updated to the NVIDIA web driver for the new OS version. Update: This has changed in Sierra (10.12) as you can no longer modify the boot-args directly (if you have SIP enabled, which is the default). The commands now become: sudo nvram nv_disable=1 to disable the drivers, and: sudo nvram nvda_drv=1 to enable them. 25) I get an error message "This computer is not compatible with the NVIDIA Web Driver". How do I install the web driver? Update: This hardware check has been removed as of 346.02.02f02 for 10.10.4 (14E46), so the driver should now just install on any system. Leaving this information in case people need to modify older drivers for some reason. By default, the NVIDIA web driver checks to see if you are running on a MacPro3,1 through MacPro5,1 or have an NVIDIA PCIe GPU installed (via the "NVDA,noEFI" property in the IORegistry). Older Mac Pros or other systems will fail this check and the installer will not work. Turns out it's actually quite easy to remove the hardware check. Simply open up a Terminal window, and run the following commands, assuming the web driver package is in your ~/Downloads folder. Note that my example uses the 343.01.01f03 driver, you should substitute the exact version you are using. Code: pkgutil --expand ~/Downloads/WebDriver-343.01.01f03.pkg ~/Downloads/WebDriver This will unpack the installer contents. You should open the Distribution file inside the WebDriver folder with a text editor like TextEdit, and change this line: Code: var found_hardware = 0; to this: Code: var found_hardware = 1; Save the file and quit the text editor. Then, run the following command in Terminal: Code: pkgutil --flatten ~/Downloads/WebDriver ~/Downloads/WebDriver-343.01.01f03.pkg This will repack the contents into the installer package. Simply double-click the installer and it should run on your system. 26) Will Pascal GPUs like the GTX 1080 work? No. We expected they might have been enabled with the first release of the 10.12 drivers, but as each Software Update from Apple comes and goes, it seems less and less likely that Pascal GPUs will ever be enabled under macOS. At this stage, I would not recommend buying a Pascal GPU with the intent of using it under macOS until NVIDIA releases a driver that enables it. Update: NVIDIA has announced that web drivers that enable Pascal are coming soon. 27) Why does every security update break the NVIDIA web driver? NVIDIA provides a set of binary driver components that must interact with a binary interface from the Apple components, both Frameworks like Metal or OpenGL and kernel extensions like IOKit. As far as I can tell, NVIDIA has two options: Tie each driver release to a specific build of the OS, so that they can guarantee that those binary interfaces remain static and thus their binary drivers are compatible. Every time Apple releases a new build of the OS, NVIDIA must release a new build of the drivers to match. Assume that Apple won't change these binary interfaces in a security update and allow one driver build to work with any version of a specific OS release (like 10.12.2). If Apple does change one of these interfaces, the driver would continually crash or cause kernel panics, thus rendering the system basically unusable. NVIDIA has chosen the first of these two options in order to avoid the huge support burden that would be generated any time Apple changes an interface that their drivers depend on. Having the desktop continually crash or the system go into a kernel panic boot loop can be very difficult to recover from, so NVIDIA has chosen the lesser of two evils and will generally require a new driver build to exactly match the specific OS build that Apple releases to the public. 28) Should I buy an NVIDIA GPU? Short answer: No. The lack of official eGPU support, and the lack of a web driver for Mojave, suggests the relationship between NVIDIA and Apple is not in a good place. As a result, it's probably best to stick with a modern AMD GPU like the RX 580 from the official eGPU enclosures. I think everyone agrees that we'd like to see some timely releases of high-quality drivers that enable all NVIDIA GPU architectures like Volta and Turing before anyone would recommend using NVIDIA on macOS. Last edited: Nov 16, 2018 Like Reactions:dabotsonline, h9826790, aaronraimist and 8 others
Hi, Guys Thanks for this Video It helped heaps, especially the 3 LED tip as I was having problems after upgrading to an AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2048 MB (NEW). I was having issues with getting the screen to work then the Backlight was off but it was the connectors. Now I finally got it back together and working fine, BUT even though the diagnostics and all system reports are good when I load a Game and start to play after 5 mins the whole system shuts down, any tips or help? maybe I need drivers for the Graphics. P.S. System is not overheating and running cooler than ever. Thanks Again.
Hi, I mounted the GTX 880m on my iMac 27" i7- 32gb ram 2011, but it doesn't work, the screen is anything black! How do I do it! Thanks in advance Regards
Same place, same system (though you have 2GB more RAM). Let me know if you get it working and I will do the same. For now, back to the original 500MB..
Question for the community: I have an old 2011 iMac, it will honestly be cheaper for me to just upgrade some of the internal hardware than buy a new iMac and have to upgrade those internals so that I can work on my 3D animation and rendering. I would want Mohave and other updated apple software but id need METAL for that and 2011 iMacs ont have METAL. 1: Does anyone recomend me upgrading the hardware for metal, or is there a software work around for that (which i'd be more comfortable with) & 2. If I download windows so that the software will be compatible with my new hardware, will it be ok for me to switch back to the MacOS operating system for daily use. I just preffer the way MacOS looks Also thanks for these videos, you're doing the project that I just had the idea for and this is all really really helpful
ricky v a GTX 980M - had it been a 860M then it probably would have worked though I know that now, almost all compatible cards need VBios workarounds to restore boot screen and fix compatibility issues with Mohave etc. Have you checked out the GPU upgrade thread at Macrumours? That’s THE place to go for the latest info on this topic and all those engaged on creating workarounds for the cards...
I found an AMD RX 480 in MXM form factor on Taobao. RX 480 can be then force flashed into an RX 580, which is known to work under macOS Mojave as it is listed by Apple as one of the supported cards for eGPU and Mac Pro 2009 use. Since there is a Mac that uses RX 580, I have a little bit of hope that someone can splice together the firmware of that RX 480 MXM card and the Apple RX 580 firmware to result in a n usable MXM card for this.
@@RetchEinhundert You need special Apple VBIOS for the boot screen to show up. P.s. My Hackinosh uses a Sapphire RX 580. If you want to you can force flash a XFX RX 580 firmware into your RX 480 - the RX 580 is a rebadge with a slight boost to clock speeds on top of RX 480, so this constitutes just a minor overclock for your RX 480.
Actually I think you're on to something there, I believe the RX 580 is also available as the rebadged WX7100 and I know that thats about the best card that reliably works in these imacs. Check out page 1 of this thread for the latest info on this topic and the current list of working cards: forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/
Hey bro i have A1311 imac 21.5" and it not working due to damge of graphic card so i want to replace new graphic card so tell me which on support for this model
You can do that too - I have a 2009 model and I will upgrading it over the next month or two. I do have to get the LVDS connector repaired first but luckily I found a service that can do that for about 40 bucks...
Is the processor and graphics upgradable on these 2011 iMac ? Apple iMac "Core i5" 2.7 27-Inch (Mid-2011) Specs Identifiers: Mid-2011 - MC813LL/A - iMac12,2 - A1312 - 2429
Michael Sais check iFixit guide for 2428 (21 inch same year) GPUs www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+21.5-Inch+EMC+2428+GPU+Card+Replacement/5980 Cpu www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+21.5-Inch+EMC+2428+CPU+Replacement/5951
weird... I changed the GPU in my 2011 27" imac so that I could render out of sony vegas running on w7 or xp; sony only qualified certain GPUs. didn't need to do anything except take the old one out & put the new one in. I've since reversed the change as the original had more RAM & I run vegas elsewhere these days.
Its trial and error with graphics cards because Apple doesn’t want you upgrading them and won’t help you upgrade them. Harder than upgrading the RAM and the storage on an iMac. Go figure.
Can everyone who sees this comment thumb it up so Luke can see this.
As I said in the comments the last 3 videos, you need a Card with VBIOS DCB tables that lines up with the iMacs EDP (embedded display port aka the LCD connector to have video) such a the Nvidia 765m and 780m that are from the Dell Precisions and Alienware laptops. Please read the 2011 iMac MXM thread on Macrumors fourms. Even better join the discussion I'm on there as well as many others who have successfully done this.
The thread is called "2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade" we're at 60 pages of discussion.
he found out now I think.......
I thought it didn't work because the 980M isn't supported? Shouldn't he be looking for something from this list: support.apple.com/en-il/HT202823 or similar? Also, didn't he place the card before installing the kext?
Without going through 60 pages of discussion, has anyone tried to update a 2011 iMac with a Radeon e9550 card?
Why doesn't he just flash the card... He's got that Xserve or for 20 bucks on eBay get a flashing tool... Someone really needs to put up a video on RUclips so many people looking for this information.
I have contributed in thats forum page, and have also been down this path........ I was unable to get either a 780m or 980m working....... after buying many cards I finally gave up!
Don’t ever apologize for the production values.
What is valuable is the content, the information, and your transferring that info to your audience.
I don't get why so many comments clearly show the viewer doesn't comprehend what's going on here, even in basic terms.
The machine physically won't boot with the card they have in this video. At all.
It isn't about flashing firmware for macOS, or anything like that -- they aren't "not getting a boot screen" and they just need to flash something, no, the machine *will not boot* with this card due to it not carrying a particular feature set which other commenters and Luke himself have described in other comments here.
Luke explained the situation in very direct, but still simple enough for anyone to understand terms in the video, but for some reason, people don't get that... it's almost as if they didn't bother watching the video before they commented, even though like a minute in Luke mentions the lack of a boot screen in detail, showing they are both very much aware of what happens when you use an unsupported graphics card in a later MacOS build.
EDIT: There's talk going around here (and replies that mysteriously disappeared) about flashing the card with the dell / alienware bios, what have you. Yeah, if that's a thing that could be done, sure, it may work well enough, but that's NOT what most people are talking about here, which is clear from context.
I already have an iMac 2017 5k, but recently bought an iMac 2011 27 inch core i7 3.6 gz, with 12gb RAM, 2gb VRAM, 4 cores with 8 threats for around 400 dlls, and im very happy with it. It aged so well, and is a very solid and fast machine. I can do pretty the same things on both computers, the 2011 doesn't have airdrop but I can share screens and edit documents using the network and its so native and fast.
I am waiting for the 2nd attempt!
Same here
Maybe they will soon, now RX 580 (technically Radeon WX 7100 but it's the same shit) works in these iMacs with boot screen support.
Me too but I believe he abandoned it.
@@jm036 Wow, that's a fast gpu. 185w tdp though compared to the iMac's stock GPUs which draw 35-75w. Better find a way to keep it cool.
@@suspendedhatch The iMac's stock cooling isn't bad at all actually.
Thank you Luke i truly appreciate the effort and hard work. This series is some of your best work
Will this project be resumed? Are you gonna try with graphics pulled out from an AlienWare machine?
Luke, when you mount a 980M it's gonna use more PCI-E lanes so you will have to dismount the super drive and the second drive. Only boot with one SATA device (the boot drive).
As an early days Hackintosher, I feel every second of your pains and frustrations! Fantastic work, and you got balls kid! I can not wait for the next video!
Yep Bansaku, I'm with you. I build a number of cheap Hackintoshes myself, plus I have a 2011 27 in. iMac.
BTW, when I got the iMac (for $20 a year and a half ago) the video card was borked. Following instructions in a RUclips video, I disassembled the iMac, removed the original video card, stuck it in the oven for 8 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius, re-assembled it, plugged it in and (fortunately!) it worked. It's been working ever since (I'm writing this on it now). It was a big job, and with the installation of an SSD and a new 2TB drive, it took the better part of a day. So I feel for the frustration of Luke and Noah when things didn't go as planned.
Looking forward to the next video as I know I will eventually need to do the same for my 2011 iMac. Keep up the good fight guys!
Was there ever a part two to this?
No, sadly the board died trying to install many graphics cards and he converted this iMac in a video to an Apple Silicon mac
thank you for all the hard work you put into this series of $400., iMac upgrades. Very interesting to see the process of trial and error.
Waiting for the day there's going to be a tutorial on this with exact things to do to swap that card. Not going to burn my fingers on it till that day.
awww, this is the end of the 2011 apple? A friend just gave me one, I was going to play with it. I guess you saved me the hassle.
Tengo un iMac 27" 2011 i7 3.4ghz, 24gb ram, con una tarjeta AMD Radeon HD 6970 1GB, esta tarjeta gráfica la cambie por la Nvidia GTX 765M de un Alienware y me funciono sin problemas, a excepción de tener que descargar una aplicación para controlar los brillos, nada grave, pero funciona.
Luke, it turns out that the card you tried to upgrade with is based on the later Maxwell architechture, the iMacs can only work with Kepler based cards. Please try again with one of the cards listed at the beginning of the Macrumours forum thread. Don't give up!
Where is the second attempt a lot of people have the same problems whith the 2011 iMac
You find solutions here: forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/
You need to install it upside down, then install the drivers, then you flip it back up. Now you should be running perfectly...
Code-Grammar What?
Hello Luke. I appreciate the time and effort you put into your videos. I am wondering if you ever sell any of your Apples after you complete your projects?
Hi Luke, what's up with the GPU Upgrade-Project? Waiting for the next step..... 😜
Been patiently waiting for this. Good luck! And happy new year in case the new one doesn’t come out tomorrow lol
700 series is the latest supported GPU because Kepler is the last with native drivers
Technically the 860M also works but there is more work to be done in creating a custom VBIOS workaround for it. Check out page 1 of this link:
forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/
You should make a part 2 where you flash the vbios .
Oh Man! I replaced the HDD and Optical drive in my sister in laws's iMac, same year, the internals look similar.Your's is a 27" though, hers was a 21". I could probably do this for that machine. These iMacs can definitely get a few more years of use. Steve Jobs may have had his fingers in these, maybe early in the design process.
Finally watched the second half of the video, sorry that it didn’t work but I learned a lot watching! Thanks!
4:40
This is what I meant with my comment on your previous video, some models does actually have the screws on the other side, which makes it so much easier to get the GPU out, It's literally 3 screws then it's out.
Oh well :)
Could you technically just reorient the screws to go in from the other side?
Can you please do an attempt two on this video?
You should have more subs
Did you ever finish this project? I can’t find anything after this video!
If I recall it right, you can use an AMD RX 580 and just rely on the stock driver. Also you got Mojave support.
Probably in a MAC PRO. We are discussing the iMac. Unfortunately a total different story.
@@maikkaune seems there is an element of truth to the OP - RX580 is rebadged as the AMD WX7100. It's not easy to get hold of the mobile version but it's far and away the most powerful card you could reliably use in this imac. Check out this thread for all the info on the GPU upgrade topic: forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/
It should never be that difficult to simply change a video card. My only iMac runs El Capitan, but all my other computers run Linux and OS/2.
so now where is this second video? don't tell me you didn't record something you were gonna do.
the power acquired for 980 is not covered by standard power supply
makos asimakis lessons I have just learned the hard way upgraded power supply on its way 480 dollars spent so far on a 2010 iMac 24 inch the DONT DO THIS COMMENT IS VALID
Theres a LOT more to this topic and it's not something to just attempt casually. The best place for all the latest info on this topic is at: forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/
Page 1 has a list of compatible cards and the current state of functionality as well as workarounds for many of the cards listed...
Windows on Mac for Mac to use Mac
Haha haha very funny
Nicholas Tryand Best Windows machine I ever had was a MacBook Pro! It just runs betteron a Mac 😂
@@SocialSpit Because SJ and BG made a special agreement back in the day, sadly corporate policies of today make both companies barely recognizable nothing more than shells of companies that used to create products to serve the people. Now with Apple in particular catering to their investors and top tier customers only, as we know Innovation has never been Microsoft strongpoint.
M. Guillermo agreed, I think windows 10 just sucks. And I’m not happy with what the fook apple has been doing lately, they have disabled all previous versions of iTunes except for the Windows 10 metro version, so that I cannot maintain my iPhones on any of the machines I used to have iTunes installed on, and all of my back ups are totally useless. And just recently apple performed a server site update to their Xcode system, invalidating all previous versions of THAT as well, so that I can no longer use Cydia impactor to sideload apps onto my iPhone, unless I buy a $100 developer certificate
That hot spot on your face is quite annoying too. When I upgraded to Mojave on my 2013 27" iMac it broke my windows 10 bootcamp.
You could flash the Alienware vBIOS on the GPU. I know it sounds like I'm trolling, but flashing different manufacturer's vBIOS on GPU's is quite common for compatibility purposes. I've done it before on an ASUS 750 Ti for a hackintosh. Flashed PNY, and it worked like a charm. Just make sure you backup your OG vBIOS so you can restore it if it doesn't work. (You're going to need to use a different primary GPU if you want to flash this one back)
We tried but there’s nothing to flash the vBIOS with, as the iMac can’t POST and the Xserve doesn’t run Windows
@@lukemiani You could flash it using a raspberry pi if you follow these instructions:
watch?v=KNy-_ZzMnG0
GTX980m does not have an Dell/Alienware rom as far as I can find.
The max is GTX880m which seems to have an Dell/Alienware rom.
I doubt even the 880m will work, I dont know about this one, but by the looks on the iFixit thread it could work..
Do keep in mind TDP wattage could be high, or too high for the iMac 2011 !
I would say stick to a max of 100Watt usage cards !
But like Highvoltage12v bellow sates, stick to known working cards !
like Dell/Alienware GTX765m or GTX780m.
See thread on macrumors as stated !!
SO THATS THE GREEN LIGHT I SEE WHEN IM ASLEEP IN MY PTCH BLACK DARK ROOM LMAO
Hi Luke,
Great stuff mate. Keep up the good work.
I have one question for you or anyone else here.
I both iMac 27” 2011 i5 2,7 250ssd 8gb ddr3 and 512mb vram for, you wont believe this less then 300$. In superb condition.
So my question is, since i have it available,
can i upgrade it with AMD Radeon HD 6970 2gb ddr5 taken from Alienware laptop. My thinking is since it is a Apple supported card it should just be strait forward swap. Am i right?
second attempt video??? what happened?? did you install successfully??
GTX 980M --> 145w TDP [Desktop Version 980 on Laptop and not renameed to 990m]
GTX 980m --> 100w TDP
GTX 780m --> 122w TDP [it work on 2011 iMac 27 is Work nice and no problem]
HD 6970m --> 75w TDP
--
I think your GTX980m is not 980m is 980M
and
iMac Graphics TDP limit is set on 120w ~ 130w
--
I think problem is on here?
--> TDP limit and wrong version on 980M
Luke start reminding your subscribers to like, comment, subscribe and turn on post notifications!
8:40 Yeah. If you have a 2011 iMac and the GPU dies, and you can't get the GPU disabled in software/firmware, just remove the card, as long as the machine still works.
So what happened? Did you give up? Did you ever get it to work?
Thanks for the information
Still waiting for this ... :/
You should be aware for future videos: please don't ever use a microfibre cloth to rest electronic components on. Microfibre is VERY susceptible to building up static charges, so using them to rest something like a graphics card on is an extremely bad idea. That is one of the quickest ways to kill a GPU or anything with electrical contact points or pins for that matter.
The wooden table surface is perfectly adequate. Either that, or a cardboard sheet, rubberised mousemat or a specific builders mat like those sold by Gamers Nexus should be used instead.
You probably could’ve flashed the cards bios with that, I’m sure dell/Alienware has it on their website, and it would probably resolve the problem, instead of buying and reselling
Are you planning on making another 2011 iMac upgrade video? I love these series of videos!
I have a core i3 late 2011 education iMac. I bought it cause I wanted an iMac as a second computer and got it in great condition for $100. It’s a great machine for light work but do you know how to add Bluetooth hardware?
Found this on amzn: Lemorele Wireless USB WiFi Adapter Bluetooth 4.2 5G/2.5G Dual Band Wireless Adapter AC 600Mbps Mini WiFi Dongle for Desktop Laptop PC Projectors Support Windows XP/7/8/10, Mac OS 10.6-10.14
I recently bought an Early 2009 24” iMac, model A1225. Everything working fine, besides the GPU, which is a GeForce GT 120. Is this upgradable?
Nice video. Btw you have nice doors and table in that room.
Isn't thermal paste there to cover any gaps between the two flat surfaces? In an ideal world, if they were both perfectly flat you wouldn't need any. So isn't it a good you can see your head in it?Means most of the area was directly touching the heatsink?
Thanks for warning me against brand new boards. I was seconds away from buying one because it's £60 cheaper than the dell specific stuff but now I don't care about the price difference that much. If I've spent £320 on the 27" 2010 iMac itself, a further £42 for an i7 and £35 for 32GB of Ram then spending £300 more on a GPU rather than £240 isn't too big a deal.
I still need to get myself an SSD and a new logic board (Had a damaged sensor connector, tried to fix with a soldering iron, knocked a resistor or two and broke it. Completely my bad. Still works though and can be used as normal but the CPU is stuck on constant thermal throttling at 1.17Ghz until I replace the board...) So I'm nowhere near done yet.
Still though.
27" 2010 iMac £320
i7-870 £42
32GB Ram £35
Replacement Logic Board £100
GTX 980m GPU £300
500GB SSD £72
Total Cost ~£869
Minus the sold parts
i5 760 that it came with £12
4GB of ram £10
Ageing 500GB HDD £20 (Had final cut on it.)
Damaged logic board £50-£100
Old HD 5750 £60-£100
Actual cost £627 ~ £717
Or £527 ~ £617 if I hadn't broken the board.
Way cheaper than anything newer than 2013 and just as powerful if not faster!
If you are confident that you can handle upgrading it (which is easy by the way) I would recommend.
Perhaps getting a 2011 iMac would have been better for the newer CPU support but between a 1st and 2nd gen i7 the difference isn't much. 10%-20% maybe.
(Bought the iMac on a whim. Never planned on it, never had one before. I just saw an ad for one and had the money for it.)
If I didn't need a new board I would have bought the SSD by now as well as the GPU that I just ordered whilst writing this but actual performance comes first. Speed comes second.
@Denis Dos Santos I was thinking that too!
Nightcore, you can't use a 980M, it's Maxwell based, you need a Kepler card to work in your iMac. Check out the latest info and compatible cards at: forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/
4:32 "I DON'T CARE that we removed the GPU incorrectly!"
0.5 seconds later, "Why did Tim/Steve make it so hard to disassemble the wrong way?😭 "
where is the 2nd video?
Probably the gpu is not flashed to run on a Mac
Flash the bios.
The vBIOS and the EFI firmware are separate. Many cards will work in Macs (especially Mac Pros) but only Apple cards, or ones flashed with the Apple EFI firmware can display boot screen and boot switcher. A card can work without the firmware
Flash GPU vBIOS to the Alienware one. I'm 99% sure that would fix the problem.
@@lukemiani "the vBIOS and the EFI firmware are separate" well no shit sherlock but still the fact that your ignoring this is dumb, just flash vBIOS you lazy bum and see if it fixes it, there's a reason you can reflash a videos cards bios, overclockers do this all the time to fix problems and to get better overclocks even people in the computer industry do this also there a reason why ThechPowerUp keeps a big archive of GPU bioss
I have a newer card that isn't supported by the Apple drivers, how do I install the web drivers that enable it if I can't even boot?
This is a common problem for people who buy bleeding-edge cards, but there's a pretty simple solution. The NVIDIA drivers, both the one from Apple and the web driver, will not load if you have nv_disable=1 in your boot args. That will let you boot to an unaccelerated desktop, at which point you should be able to install the web drivers for your current OS. You should then remove the nv_disable flag from your boot args and reboot, and you should be up and running.
Assuming you have no other boot args, you can set the flag like this:
sudo nvram boot-args="nv_disable=1"
Then, once you've installed the web driver and are about to reboot, you can remove the flag and enable the web driver like this:
sudo nvram boot-args="nvda_drv=1"
Obviously if you have other settings in your boot args string, you should add them at each step as well.
This is particularly important for people with Maxwell based cards like the GTX 750 or GTX 9xx series, as the stock Apple drivers currently do not support the Maxwell architecture and will cause a kernel panic if they are enabled. This has been described as a "reboot loop", where the system will continually reboot after hitting the kernel panic during startup. If you are using a Mac Pro with one of these cards, you will still need an EFI card to drive a monitor so that you can update to the new web driver. This card (e.g. a GT 120) will be running in unaccelerated mode so everything will be slow, but the EFI on that card will allow the Mac Pro to light up the display connected to it. An alternative is to connect from another system via VNC or Screen Sharing, as this will work even when the NVIDIA drivers are disabled.
People using Hackintoshes don't have to worry about using a second card as the Hackintosh boot loader will initialize the card using the VBIOS and thus the monitor will light up, but you will still need to run with nv_disable=1 in order to avoid the kernel panic until you have updated to the NVIDIA web driver for the new OS version.
Update: This has changed in Sierra (10.12) as you can no longer modify the boot-args directly (if you have SIP enabled, which is the default). The commands now become:
sudo nvram nv_disable=1
to disable the drivers, and:
sudo nvram nvda_drv=1
to enable them.
25) I get an error message "This computer is not compatible with the NVIDIA Web Driver". How do I install the web driver?
Update: This hardware check has been removed as of 346.02.02f02 for 10.10.4 (14E46), so the driver should now just install on any system. Leaving this information in case people need to modify older drivers for some reason.
By default, the NVIDIA web driver checks to see if you are running on a MacPro3,1 through MacPro5,1 or have an NVIDIA PCIe GPU installed (via the "NVDA,noEFI" property in the IORegistry). Older Mac Pros or other systems will fail this check and the installer will not work. Turns out it's actually quite easy to remove the hardware check. Simply open up a Terminal window, and run the following commands, assuming the web driver package is in your ~/Downloads folder. Note that my example uses the 343.01.01f03 driver, you should substitute the exact version you are using.
Code:
pkgutil --expand ~/Downloads/WebDriver-343.01.01f03.pkg ~/Downloads/WebDriver
This will unpack the installer contents. You should open the Distribution file inside the WebDriver folder with a text editor like TextEdit, and change this line:
Code:
var found_hardware = 0;
to this:
Code:
var found_hardware = 1;
Save the file and quit the text editor. Then, run the following command in Terminal:
Code:
pkgutil --flatten ~/Downloads/WebDriver ~/Downloads/WebDriver-343.01.01f03.pkg
This will repack the contents into the installer package. Simply double-click the installer and it should run on your system.
26) Will Pascal GPUs like the GTX 1080 work?
No. We expected they might have been enabled with the first release of the 10.12 drivers, but as each Software Update from Apple comes and goes, it seems less and less likely that Pascal GPUs will ever be enabled under macOS. At this stage, I would not recommend buying a Pascal GPU with the intent of using it under macOS until NVIDIA releases a driver that enables it.
Update: NVIDIA has announced that web drivers that enable Pascal are coming soon.
27) Why does every security update break the NVIDIA web driver?
NVIDIA provides a set of binary driver components that must interact with a binary interface from the Apple components, both Frameworks like Metal or OpenGL and kernel extensions like IOKit. As far as I can tell, NVIDIA has two options:
Tie each driver release to a specific build of the OS, so that they can guarantee that those binary interfaces remain static and thus their binary drivers are compatible. Every time Apple releases a new build of the OS, NVIDIA must release a new build of the drivers to match.
Assume that Apple won't change these binary interfaces in a security update and allow one driver build to work with any version of a specific OS release (like 10.12.2). If Apple does change one of these interfaces, the driver would continually crash or cause kernel panics, thus rendering the system basically unusable.
NVIDIA has chosen the first of these two options in order to avoid the huge support burden that would be generated any time Apple changes an interface that their drivers depend on. Having the desktop continually crash or the system go into a kernel panic boot loop can be very difficult to recover from, so NVIDIA has chosen the lesser of two evils and will generally require a new driver build to exactly match the specific OS build that Apple releases to the public.
28) Should I buy an NVIDIA GPU?
Short answer: No. The lack of official eGPU support, and the lack of a web driver for Mojave, suggests the relationship between NVIDIA and Apple is not in a good place. As a result, it's probably best to stick with a modern AMD GPU like the RX 580 from the official eGPU enclosures. I think everyone agrees that we'd like to see some timely releases of high-quality drivers that enable all NVIDIA GPU architectures like Volta and Turing before anyone would recommend using NVIDIA on macOS.
Last edited: Nov 16, 2018
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Time to call Louis R.
You could have at least rewrite Vbios on this card with windows and the utility to alienwares
Hi, Guys Thanks for this Video It helped heaps, especially the 3 LED tip as I was having problems after upgrading to an AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2048 MB (NEW). I was having issues with getting the screen to work then the Backlight was off but it was the connectors. Now I finally got it back together and working fine, BUT even though the diagnostics and all system reports are good when I load a Game and start to play after 5 mins the whole system shuts down, any tips or help? maybe I need drivers for the Graphics. P.S. System is not overheating and running cooler than ever. Thanks Again.
I would stick to graphics cards that already existed before in iMacs. A few watts missing makes it hard to figure out.
Dream that Apple will some date weak up and make some, GPU upgrade like this for macbook pro
Hi,
I mounted the GTX 880m on my iMac 27" i7- 32gb ram 2011, but it doesn't work, the screen is anything black!
How do I do it!
Thanks in advance
Regards
Same place, same system (though you have 2GB more RAM). Let me know if you get it working and I will do the same. For now, back to the original 500MB..
Awesome sauce!
AwesomesauceNetwork
I feel these guys pain... I tried upgrading the graphics card in this 27" imac also. fuck it.
I wonder if you could put something like a MXM RTX 3080 in one of these
Brother what are those GPUs specific name since the normal one are little big .Please tell me their specific name!
Question for the community: I have an old 2011 iMac, it will honestly be cheaper for me to just upgrade some of the internal hardware than buy a new iMac and have to upgrade those internals so that I can work on my 3D animation and rendering. I would want Mohave and other updated apple software but id need METAL for that and 2011 iMacs ont have METAL.
1: Does anyone recomend me upgrading the hardware for metal, or is there a software work around for that (which i'd be more comfortable with)
&
2. If I download windows so that the software will be compatible with my new hardware, will it be ok for me to switch back to the MacOS operating system for daily use. I just preffer the way MacOS looks
Also thanks for these videos, you're doing the project that I just had the idea for and this is all really really helpful
Very interesting :)
It's it also possible to upgrade my late 2009 iMac i7 from the HD4850 GPU it has? I would prefer a Nvidia
Any news? I really wonder where this thing will go.
What does it mean if you push the power button and LED 2 doesn’t light on? What would you troubleshoot if you know the power supply is working?
or you could just flash the video cards bios, thats how people get non mac GPUs working in desktops macs
ok where is the second attempt?
You need the Apple Efi Firmware on the GPU when you flash the card you have the boot screen and his woark... The Windows Bios on the card dont woark.
yeah this looks just as easy as on a custom pc
What graphic card model is ??
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣THE DRIVE PART THO!!!!!!!
Damn! I was really hoping you all would have had success.
If the Server saw the GPU, why not use it in that machine?
Because its a Maxwell based card, not Kepler. iMacs need Kepler cards to work...
Rendell001 Thank you for the info. What was the GPU he tried again? 😂 😆
ricky v a GTX 980M - had it been a 860M then it probably would have worked though I know that now, almost all compatible cards need VBios workarounds to restore boot screen and fix compatibility issues with Mohave etc. Have you checked out the GPU upgrade thread at Macrumours? That’s THE place to go for the latest info on this topic and all those engaged on creating workarounds for the cards...
@Luke did you ever buy the compatible gpu for the Mojave 2011 Imac upgrade?
yo. that was interesting, i have a 2008imac 24 that it's graphic port is pcie 16x. do you think could it be upgraded with regular gpu s?!
You have to use windows computer to flash your card for the Mac or use windows on Mac to flash the card
Cool "Rays of Light" effects on your face!!! Lol!
Did you get it working yet?
I found an AMD RX 480 in MXM form factor on Taobao. RX 480 can be then force flashed into an RX 580, which is known to work under macOS Mojave as it is listed by Apple as one of the supported cards for eGPU and Mac Pro 2009 use.
Since there is a Mac that uses RX 580, I have a little bit of hope that someone can splice together the firmware of that RX 480 MXM card and the Apple RX 580 firmware to result in a n usable MXM card for this.
I use a xfx 480 in my hackintosh without any special drivers/Kexts.
@@RetchEinhundert You need special Apple VBIOS for the boot screen to show up. P.s. My Hackinosh uses a Sapphire RX 580. If you want to you can force flash a XFX RX 580 firmware into your RX 480 - the RX 580 is a rebadge with a slight boost to clock speeds on top of RX 480, so this constitutes just a minor overclock for your RX 480.
Actually I think you're on to something there, I believe the RX 580 is also available as the rebadged WX7100 and I know that thats about the best card that reliably works in these imacs. Check out page 1 of this thread for the latest info on this topic and the current list of working cards:
forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/
Hi Luke how no working gtx 980m for imac ?
Hey bro i have A1311 imac 21.5" and it not working due to damge of graphic card so i want to replace new graphic card so tell me which on support for this model
I'll be recovering from motion sickness from waving that camera around for the next week now.
I'd like to upgrade the GPU in my 2011 27" i7, and saw an Nvidia Quadro K3100M 4GB MXM billed as "pre-flashed for iMac." Will this solve the issue?
If u succeed I'm interested in buying your HD 6970M to upgrade my HD 6750M iMac 21.5...
Upgrade my 27" 2009 iMac!!!
Edwin Cortez-Nunez how! i would like to know as i would like to do it!
You can do that too - I have a 2009 model and I will upgrading it over the next month or two. I do have to get the LVDS connector repaired first but luckily I found a service that can do that for about 40 bucks...
I hope this works. With the alien ware card 🤞
were is the second video were it is working
where is second part?
Is the processor and graphics upgradable on these 2011 iMac ? Apple iMac "Core i5" 2.7 27-Inch (Mid-2011) Specs
Identifiers: Mid-2011 - MC813LL/A - iMac12,2 - A1312 - 2429
Michael Sais check iFixit guide for 2428 (21 inch same year)
GPUs www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+21.5-Inch+EMC+2428+GPU+Card+Replacement/5980
Cpu www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+21.5-Inch+EMC+2428+CPU+Replacement/5951
Would a quadro 4000 m work on a 21.5 imac from 2010? (Has an ssd so dont worry about space)
DedoGamingONE / Sorcièr wondering the same thing
I'm trying to upgrade my gpu for gaming
What if u put in a big gtx970? Will in work with a Windows instllment or does the hardware say bo also?
Clevo or msi cards won't work FYI for anyone still trying to do this
Apple wants to know your location...
you need a UFI rom for it to work
weird... I changed the GPU in my 2011 27" imac so that I could render out of sony vegas running on w7 or xp; sony only qualified certain GPUs. didn't need to do anything except take the old one out & put the new one in. I've since reversed the change as the original had more RAM & I run vegas elsewhere these days.
Its trial and error with graphics cards because Apple doesn’t want you upgrading them and won’t help you upgrade them. Harder than upgrading the RAM and the storage on an iMac. Go figure.