iMac 2011 - Nvidia MXM GPU Big Sur no acceleration

[zzmadd]

If you want to get Sonoma running on your Skylake/Kaby Lake hybrid setup you will need to use iMac19,1 SMBIOS.

Alternatively you can use MacPro1,1 or MacPro7,1 SMBIOS but you will need to disable the IGPU in the Bios, when using either of these ‘Pro’ system definitions.

I need to ask you a question about an Nvidia GPU Quadro K2000 MXM into an iMac 2011 that runs Big Sur with Legacy Patcher but it doesn't have hardware acceleration working.
Where should I type such question?
Thanks for your help.

 

[zzmadd]

@Edhawk
the question is...
Do you think there's a way to run hardware acceleration on a MXM Quadro K2000 inside an iMac 2011 that already runs Big Sur with Open Core Legacy Patcher?
Basically it's only missing hardware acceleration.
I'm not sure how to make it work. I've read it's a kepler card and should work in Big sur, is that true?
I don't have the top bar nor the Apple logo on the left top corner.
Any help is welcome, thanks a lot.
And if I let OCLP build the EFI doing a Graphics Override for Nvidia Kepler the system doesn't boot up and gets stuck at Apple logo.

 

[Edhawk]

Yes it is true, I have an iMac 2010 27" with a Quadro K1100M installed and it runs macOS Big Sur with graphics acceleration. I am using OCLP on the 2010 iMac, otherwise this 1st Gen Intel system wouldn't run anything beyond High Sierra.

1. Have you flashed the vBios on your Quadro K2000M card?
2. If yes, which ROM have you used to flash your card?
3. This is the ROM recommended for the K2000M over at MacRumours in the 2011 iMac GPU upgrade thread.

2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade

The following is a rom for brightness control for the people who own a K2000M card. You will still need to use Opencore to do the necessary ACPI injections. Appreciate @BadBiscuit for doing the initial testing and confirmation. His hardware and OS support is below. Vram support: Hynix...

forums.macrumors.com

Plus this might answer some of what you asked.

 

[zzmadd]

Yes it is true, I have an iMac 2010 27" with a Quadro K1100M installed and it runs macOS Big Sur with graphics acceleration. I am using OCLP on the 2010 iMac, otherwise this 1st Gen Intel system wouldn't run anything beyond High Sierra.

1. Have you flashed the vBios on your Quadro K2000M card?
2. If yes, which ROM have you used to flash your card?
3. This is the ROM recommended for the K2000M over at MacRumours in the 2011 iMac GPU upgrade thread.

2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade

The following is a rom for brightness control for the people who own a K2000M card. You will still need to use Opencore to do the necessary ACPI injections. Appreciate @BadBiscuit for doing the initial testing and confirmation. His hardware and OS support is below. Vram support: Hynix...

forums.macrumors.com

Plus this might answer some of what you asked.

View attachment 579173

HI @Edhawk,
thanks a lot for your reply!!

1. The Quadro K2000M is flashed using Nick[D]vB vBios. It says so on the iMac profile
2. I haven't flashed the card myself but by someone else
3. I'm sure this MXM card was flashed some time ago, years ago when the original Radeon failed

- I understand what Graphic Acceleration means.
- Using OCLP 1.3.0 I get Big Sur running BUT the EFI prepared doesn't allow any app to show the top menu nor the Apple logo is visible on the top left but the services icons are visible on the top right. No transparency on dock or top bar. There's no hardware acceleration for the interface
- If I add Kepler support from OCLP the EFI doesn't boot the system
- If I modify the BoardID to for example iMac 13,1 13,2 14,2 I can see the top menu BUT the iMac runs really bad. Anything I do is super slow and it might take 5 minutes for a windows to show up especially the one related to the iMac System Profile. Also the iMac doesn't wake from sleep and shows kernel panic and next reboot
- This iMac also has Intel HD3000, ideally the interface would be hardware accelerated.

Any suggestion?
Thanks a lot.

 

[Edhawk]

Sorry, not got anything to offer in this case. My first thoughts were that the vBios might need to be flashed. But that doesn't seem to be the case. Depending on how long ago the Bios was flashed there may be a newer version available but I don't think an older vBios would cause the issues you listed above.

I would suggest going back to a vanilla OCLP setup, so you can eliminate any changes you have made to the OC setup. You shouldn't need to change the SMBIOS for the system in OCLP, as it is automatically set to work with the iMac's current SMBIOS.

You haven't been messing with any Nvidia boot arguments have you, while changing SMBIOS options/settings in the OCLP setup?

The HD3000 should be set with a headless framebuffer by default within OCLP, so Intel Quick Sync should work in respect of Video Decoding & Encoding. What does the free version of VideoProc app show in respect of the Nvidia card?

[OFFICIAL] VideoProc - One-Stop Video Editing Software for Windows Mac

Digiarty VideoProc is easy video editing software to cut, crop, merge, rotate, compress 4K 8K HEVC H264 HDR GoPro iPhone videos, DVDs and music; also to convert, record and download videos with full GPU acceleration.

www.videoproc.com

 

[zzmadd]

Sorry, not got anything to offer in this case. My first thoughts were that the vBios might need to be flashed. But that doesn't seem to be the case. Depending on how long ago the Bios was flashed there may be a newer version available but I don't think an older vBios would cause the issues you listed above.

I would suggest going back to a vanilla OCLP setup, so you can eliminate any changes you have made to the OC setup. You shouldn't need to change the SMBIOS for the system in OCLP, as it is automatically set to work with the iMac's current SMBIOS.

You haven't been messing with any Nvidia boot arguments have you, while changing SMBIOS options/settings in the OCLP setup?

The HD3000 should be set with a headless framebuffer by default within OCLP, so Intel Quick Sync should work in respect of Video Decoding & Encoding. What does the free version of VideoProc app show in respect of the Nvidia card?

[OFFICIAL] VideoProc - One-Stop Video Editing Software for Windows Mac

Digiarty VideoProc is easy video editing software to cut, crop, merge, rotate, compress 4K 8K HEVC H264 HDR GoPro iPhone videos, DVDs and music; also to convert, record and download videos with full GPU acceleration.

www.videoproc.com

Thanks a lot for the reply.
I settled with Catalina.
The Nvidia K2000 is not a a card Apple originally shipped.
OCLP cannot take into account those instances, I suppose there are unintended consequences when hardware is not original. OCLP tem cannot reproduce all the combinations.
In Catalina the card works I'll be using like this, let's see if it's any good...
Thanks a lot!!