Upgrade iMac 27" late 2009 video card?

It was indeed the 4850.

Be warned, the 6970 runs hot ! I had to install smcFanControl and bump up the fans to keep the system stable. Still working on getting BootCamp'd Windows 7 running properly but I suspect I'll need to play with the fans some more there too.

Stabilty definitely an issue if you push the card. Random hard hangs etc. Might be an issue with trying to drive both monitors since iladesign didn't report any problems. Haven't completely given up (it is a $500 upgrade....) but back to the 4870 for now

Its still avaliable here at Dvwarehouse:

http://www.dvwarehouse.com/Video-Card-AMD-Radeon-HD-6970M-2GB-for-iMac-27-Mid-20 11-661-5969---NEW-p-40083.html

Hopefully OWC will stock it soon as they will prob be much cheaper! I dont like the price tag of the Dvwarehouse one.

I have not tried video in but given everything else seems to work, I suspect that will as well.

Shutdowns ... really depends on what you are trying to do. Playing games under Windows (Bootcamp) is a non-starter, at least for me. Gaming under Mac (i.e. World of Warcraft, Diablo 3) seems to last about 20 minutes before the system gets unstable and crashes repeately. With the fans bumped up a bit and just doing normal Mac stuff, everything stays stable.

There is a January video update for the 2011 iMacs which won't apply on a 2009. I half expect that there is also a driver issue in there too....

Do the late 2009 and 2011 27" iMacs have different power supplies? If they do could the crashing be from the 6970 using more power vs the old 4850? and if the 2011 does have a more powerful power supply could it be installed into a late 09?

wmaclaurin wrote:

Stabilty definitely an issue if you push the card. Random hard hangs etc. & There is a January video update for the 2011 iMacs which won't apply on a 2009. I half expect that there is also a driver issue in there too..

After some more looking around there was on Feb 26th a graphic firmware update 3.0 for late 2011's which i think is for the 6970m GPU's that was supposed to fix those random hang ups and such. So now the question is how to bypass the installer for it checking for the model identifier 12,2 or 12,3 (whichever ones have the 6970m's) to install on a 11,1 (late 09)!

Is there not a way to change the identifier is there a com.apple.boot.plist in the install script? if so just add

macmodel=iMac11,1 and try it, not sure how the install package comes but thats what i would try first, or locate the plist.txt file which stores your mac identifier after a system install and change it breafly to install the upadate.

Im not sure where this file is stored though but it should contain something like this:

<key>memory-type</key>

<string>DDR2</string>

<key>model</key>

<string>iMac11,1</string>

Cheers.
Bo

I really have no clue what it is you mentioned to look for 😕 but all i see for the graphic firmeware update 3.0 file is "iMacGraphicsFWUpdate.dmg" and that opens into "iMacGraphicsFWUpdate.pkg"

sorry i'm just pretty clueless about plists and most things on my mac

Ignore my previous post. i found a way to unpack the "iMacGraphicsFWUpdate.pkg" file and now have access to "ATIFacelessFlash.app" and "ATIROMFlasher_SL.kext" I'm just waiting for my ordered part to arrive in the mail and i will be trying out that.

Ok that may work.

Copy the ATIROMFlasher_SL.kext file to yor desctop.

Then right click or two finger click or what ever you use and select edit package.

Then see if you can find the com.apple.boot.plist file i mentioned above and change the macmodel ID

Then save and copy back.

If you run in to permission errors then the file will need changing first with a sudo command which i can instruct you to do.

(as i havent opend this kext file before i have no idea if the identifier scrip is even in there but its worth a try)

If the com.apple.boot.plist is not in there the macmodel ID could also be in a diffrent plist file.

Maybe info.plst, im just guessing as i havent done this before.

Good luck.

If all this fails we will have to try to spoth the Imacs model ID instead of chaning the installer ID.

Wouldn't Sandy Bridge's integrated graphics be a big part of the video update's script?

I'm thinking of attempting this, but I'm worried spoofing the ID model will force some bad voodoo to go down with my CPU. Lynnfield lacks the HD 3000 graphics that iMac/MacBook Pros switch to and from to save power.

Unless we can edit the script/drivers to always remain on the discrete adapter?

******Great success!!!******

Just reporting back for the update . My 27" iMac AMD Radeon 6970M 2048mb card arrived in the mail today and i have successfuly installed it replacing the old 4850m in my late 2009 27". I have no clue what wmaclauren did wrong but mine runs just as cool as the 4850 and i have had zero crashes running World of Warcraft for 2 hours+. Though i am somewhat disapointed in the fact i still can't run water detail past fair setting and have more than 1x multisampling grrrrr >:I

That's extremely awesome news... You've got me seriously considering doing a completely bare-metal install of OSX Lion and seeing if maybe my problems were related to software issues.

The existing machine's install goes way way back.....

I am noticing something since installing in World of Warcraft that worries me. Before on my 4850 for video setting the recommended setting for each thing were usually a mix bag of fair, good and high, but with the 6970 installed they are ALL recommended as disable and low. That should not be and looks like WoW thinks my GPU is worse than a 4850 atm but actually runs better. (if that makes sense)

GrandBuffet wrote:

I am noticing something since installing in World of Warcraft that worries me. Before on my 4850 for video setting the recommended setting for each thing were usually a mix bag of fair, good and high, but with the 6970 installed they are ALL recommended as disable and low. That should not be and looks like WoW thinks my GPU is worse than a 4850 atm but actually runs better. (if that makes sense)

Nevermind this ^

I talked to Blizzard and it's an issue of Apple & ATI/AMD drivers not being updated yet for some of the GFX features in WoW. So to conclude my installed 6970M GPU is infact working 100% as if it came bundled on my late 2009!

Cheers