I have a late-2009 iMac 27" with a Radeon HD 4850 - 512 mb.
Would it be possible to upgrade the graphics card to the ATI Radeon HD 5670 Video Card 512MB GDDR3?
Also, my iMac has 8gbs of ram, where can the ram sticks be purchased and can Apple replace it?
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7), iMac 27" late 2009 model
Actually, the posts that state it can't be done are WRONG! And it does NOT require
any soldering or chip removal for the 27" iMacs.
I have the exact same late 2009 27" iMac, and upgraded it to the part from
OWC the you pointed out previously, this one:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/6615578/
You'll be voiding your warranty certainly, but unless you have Apple care you're already
past Apple's 1yr anyway...
It is absolutely possible, and works great. You do not need to touch any firmware, and OS X
already has the drivers for this board. It's entirely a hardware process to upgrade it, i.e. open
the iMac and replace the board and you're done.
The process of upgrading it isn't particularly trivial, but it is absolutely possible, I've been using
the upgraded 5750 1GB board since last Fall (~October) without a single problem in my 27"
High level summary of steps, (there are better more detailed instructions a few places online like iFixit)
(1) remove display cover panel
(2) remove display itself, look online for the details this part can be dicey
(3) disconnect all cables from logic board, tape back near where they came from to get them out of the way and make them easy to reconnect
(4) remove RAM (makes it easier to remove logic board from housing)
(5) unscrew and remove logic board (which has MXM slotted video board attached to it)
(6) set logic board flat on a static safe area
(7) unscrew MXM video board heat sink screws that connect it to logic board, and disconnect it from the logic board
(8) plug in the upgrade/replacement video board
(9) put everything back together
(10) enjoy your faster video card
If you haven't taken your iMac apart before, expect to spend ~90min if you're careful about everything.
If you have, it can be done in ~30-45min.
A couple additional tips, one above was the removing RAM makes it easier to remove the logic board, another
is that when you reinsert the logic board, have a USB cable or similar handy to plug into the back to help
align the logic board when you re-seat it. The last tip is the one about taping the wires back just above where
they get plugged in. I didn't do this the first time through, and one fell down and didn't get plugged back in on
re-assembly. I had to disassemble the whole thing again to dig it out and plug it back in...
Cheers
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
How much of an improvement have you noticed?
RyanAlan wrote:
How much of an improvement have you noticed?
For WoW the improvement has been quite a bit over the old 4850. On live i can get 100fps but i cap it at 60 because anything over is just wasted power/heat on the cpu/gpu. On MoP beta i'm getting a solid 40-60 fps with the new shaders added for MoP and it's not even optimized since it's "beta". All settings are between good and ultra.
Have you tried reseting your PRAM/NVRAM?
RyanAlan wrote:
Have you tried reseting your PRAM/NVRAM?
Huh? why? I said it's 100% working and have zero issues "upgrading" the 4850 to a 6970.
Sorry, that was a reply to wmaclaurin. He had trouble with hard shutdowns after the install.
That's really encouraging to hear you got it working properly. I'm thinking about doing this sometime next month.
Just make sure you buy one that is an actual apple 27" iMac Radeon HD 6970M replacement part and not just any ol' 6970M. I got mine from http://www.welovemacs.com/6615969.html Comes with the heatsink and apple firmware on it which is needed to work.
So, what steps did you have to take, exactly?
Did you make the same cut as Iliadesign, or did the model you link to fit in as it was received?
Did you have to spoof the model ID to force the video update, or did the new EFI just recognize/run it anyways?
If you did have to force the update, what steps did you take to do this?
You've inspired me to go ahead and do this upgrade, just want to make sure I get it right the first time.
Just getting uber tired of the choppy previewing on my Mac with Adobe Premiere, when my PC blazes through non-rendered playback like a hot knife through butter, so my new upgraded CPU would love a nice new powerful GPU to go in next to it.
The steps i took were the same as any of the teardowns that are easily googled. At first i thought i had to make that same cut cause the heatsink on the 6970 has 3 pipes vs the 2 pipes on the 4850 but the pipes don't even go through that notch, so no clue why he made the notch bigger. I didn't have to install any video updates or anything.
AMD Radeon HD 6970M:
Chipset Model: AMD Radeon HD 6970M
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 2048 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x6720
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-C2960K-152
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.507
It just recognized it right away right on the first bootup.
I now just need to figure out what's the fastest CPU i can upgrade to 😝
I can answer that question for you, I just did mine today.
Core i7-880. 3.06ghz.
Fastest 95watt TDP socket 1156 ever made - past that they all went to the 9xx series, and thusly a new socket.
Hmm, how big of a difference is it from the 2.8 i7?
I can't say exactly, but I know I'm seeing about a 60% improvement over my i5-750.
Geekbench w/only 4 gigs of stock Ram went from 6304 to 9535
Hi guys,
Am very happy this thread has been resurected and am very interested in upgrading the graphics in my late 2009 27" iMac to help playing BF3 in bootcamp!
I've seen the 6970M offerred by GrandBuffet but my question is why exactly would a 'normal' MXM card not work? I live in the UK and have found an 6970M MXM on eBay for approx $440 delivered http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AMD-Radeon-HD6970M-MXM-3-0b-2GB-DDR5-w-Soldered-Posts- Matching-Screws-/120904328540?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item1c2675a55c#ht_1813w t_1161
Would this not be compatiable with my the existing heat sink in my mac?
I have also seen 5870 1GB MXM cards for sale for significantly less.. thoguhts?
Thanks 😀
It's my understanding that you can't use a normal MXM slot card because apple has specific ROMS and EFI's flashed to their cards. As for te heat sink question, I doubt it, because the one used for the 4850 cards in the late 2009's only have two pipes while the apple 6970 has three pipes in the heat sink. I would imagine the old heat sink would not efficiently cool the 6970.
Upgrade iMac 27" late 2009 video card?
