Upgrade iMac 27" late 2009 video card?

Hello everyone!

Another broken 4850 graphics card on a late 2009 iMac. I am getting pink vertical stripes and booting up is not possible either in os x or in windows.

Anyone can point me in a replacement? All the alternatives I can find are quite expensive.

And additionally I got a quote from a shop in Munich for a new replacement with 3 months warranty for a bit less than 300 Euros (together with installation).

Does that sound like a fair price? Any cheaper alternatives?

Thank you very much in advance

Apostolos

Hi,

I ended up my taking my mac to the service after I had tried an ati radeon 6870m from alienware without success. The physical replacement operation was not too difficult, but I had neglected to setup the default boot partition to windows and hence only got a black screen. As my old card is not working enough to boot the computer, I had no way of attempting to flash the card with an apple efi from netkas forum. Anyways they do not have "a straight out of the box solution" for mobility version. Also I could not be hundred percent sure if the card that I bought from an auction site was working or not, so there were just too many unknowns to fix the machine myself. My quote was 320 including work. They would have sold me an old card without return option for 230, so I rather took the option with a warranty. It might be that I was just unlucky with the card that I found, since on some forum, 6870 was mentioned as one of the few non-compatible cards. However, I cannot confirm if the more recent gpu cards are working without flashing or not. Finding any mobility versions with sensible prices from online auction sites turned out to be very demanding. I wonder if I would have bought nvidia k4000m for about the same price I am paying now, would I have much better card instead of the old sucky one.

-Janne

I´m having the same problem. I also dont find anywhere to buy it at a reasonable price. I live in Europe and due to tax/custom I prefer to find a reseller/shop in Europe.

Have read somewhere that you can replace it with e.g. newer Geforce 660M but the cards I find are from Acer/HP and so on and I´m guessing it then needs to be flashed. As I reckon flashing requires a Windows system its not an option for me.

Call Apple and tell them what happened or take it to an Authorized Repair Centre. Ask them you want to claim under consumer Law. In UK it is 6 years in Europe it varies but 5 years is the norm, they may repair it free of charge.

I just had the same issue on my Late 2009 iMac recently and got the GPU and screen replaced free of charge. There is some info on Consumer Law even on Apple's website but it is small print

Another imac 27" late 2009 ati radeon 4850 has bit the dust. It runs ok in safe mode but wont boot up otherwise and hangs on the white screen. In safe mode it looks fine except when browsing the web in chrome it has a constant refresh that looks like "venetian blinds" radiating up the screen.

Ive checked the RAM and thats fine. The mac also wont boot up diagnostics mode, but Novabench couldn't test the GPU as it said it may be incompatible. I have two options of either finding a replacment gpu and attempting to install that which seems even more difficult due to lack of options for a replacement or taking it to apple and im sure paying a relative fortune to get the same (?) gpu model installed.

If anyone has advice on what i should do let me know.

Hi everyone,

My 4850 just died on late 2009 I7 iMac. as mentioned before these cards that can be found online are very expensive for some reason.

I'm looking to get my iMac alive again so i was looking at compatible cards that might be cheaper and still could run the system.

As i did so, i found that Radeon 6770M, 512MB (originally for mid 2011 27" iMac) can be found for much less and even almost half the price tags of some 4850.

http://applecomponents.com/items/661-5967_card-video-amd-radeon-hd-6770m-512mb/0 000005111?pn=1&s=661-5967&per_page=30

My questions are, is this card compatible with the late 2009 i7 iMac?

is someone here tried this kind of replacement and it succeed ?

how is the 6770M performance compared to the 4850, considering they're both 512MB?

I'm open to any card that will work on my configuration (except 4670), is someone selling a compatible card?

My 4850 has also just died, funny they all start dying around the same time!

The 6770M looks interesting and much easier to obtain but doesn't seem to have the same power as the 4850.

Although it's looking like the way to go, just to get things going again.

If anyone has a 4850 up for sale please let me know!

Any other compatible replacements?

Hello every one....

My configuration is :

iMac 27" late 2009, Core 2 Duo 3.06GHz, Radeon HD 4670 256MB, 8GB RAM and updated last month SSD 120GB Kingston against DVD.

OS X El_Capitan also on board...

I don't need to play games with high FPS, but I got problem with plays video files smoothly, mean a new HQ video files 1440p and 4K from GoPro...

It can plays few FullHD 1080p at one time, but 4K movies are plays with freezing....

With new standard 1440p from YouTube plays smoothly with outstanding picture quality in1;1 pixel to native 27" 2560x1440p...

but video files from GoPro in just 1920x1440 (4:3 aspect) with 45mbit/s are jerky like the 4k from GoPro (60mbits)...

Also many different 4k movies with smaller bitrate doesn't play at all....

4k demo redepic 15.67 MBIT/s plays with freezing also

Using the iMovie I convert my sample GoPro 799mb file with 60mbit/s to different quality, and just lowest profile with 10mbit/s (file is 133mb) can play with no freezing frames, but quality of video is very poor, many pixelating... Comparing it to outstanding YT video files 1440p with 60fps it's a big diffrent in quality....

So....... my question is..... the changing my GPU card to something new like You all do here solve my problems and my iMacs will be can plays video files with even 60mbit/s smoothly or it its nor possible with my Core 2 Duo ???

Could You anyone check Your video improvements on Your oldest 2009 machines, with Core 2 Dou or i5 with new video card??

And the price for 600$ for HD 6970 is so too high for very old component, for 600-800 You can buy whole 27" iMac...

I'm wondering that is option for cheaper card for eg 4850 or 6770 to satisfy me for playing 4K videos and is any chance for change the my processor core 2 Duo to i3,i5 or i7...

Sorry for my english at all, I'm not so good in it...

Regards, Tomasz from Poland.....

My iMac 11,1 (late 2009) with core i7 860 and Radeon HD4850 died recently... The video card stopped working and displays pink/green stripes when loading or in safe mode. In normal mode it stays stuck at a gray screen (with no stripes nor cursor). I went to an Apple Store, here in Canada, and they refused to do anything about it because it's not a recognized problem... If less than 1% of a model is officially affected by a problem and the warranty is over, they won't do a thing about it!

Did anybody here try to upgrade the 2009 Imac to one of the Nvidia cards supported by Mac. I've seen some people doing this in 2011 Imacs, but was wondering if it would be worth it in a 2009 and. if not, I'm planning to install the 6970M 2GB. Anybody can be specific about the performance difference?

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=imac+hd+6970m+2gb

http://www.allpartsmac.com/NEW-IMac-27-AMD-Radeon-HD-6970M-1GB-2011-661-5968.htm ?gclid=CjwKEAiAk7O0BRD9_Ka2w_PhwSkSJAAmK…

https://www.macpartsdepot.com/index.php/661-5968-27-inch-imac-mid-2011-a1312-car d-video-radeon-hd-6970m-1gb-amd.html?gclid=CjwKEAiAk7O0BRD9_Ka2w_PhwSkSJAAmKswxq 33OKlzr0CYXqxsKnwbH1ZsbkJ6BKRckT45dtatrRhoCJNDw_wcB

Can anyone who had done the upgrade do the 2 gb hd6970m tel me if i have only to replace the card itself, of also the heat sink plates ?

(in can buy only the card for a reasonable price, but i have to set over the original cooling parts, but does that fit as wel of is the cooling part different for both cards?)

regards joerie

The netherlands

I have a late 2009 27 Imac. My 4850 512MB GDDR3 memory died earlier this week. My specs are:

2.66ghz quad core intel core i5

Would you all recommend replacing it with:

NEW 661-5967 IMac 27" AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512MB 2011 Video Card

NEW 661-5969 IMac 27" AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB 2011 Video Card

NEW 661-5578 IMac 27" ATI Radeon HD 5750 1GB Mid 2010

??? I'm a simple user. Do some programming but no real game play. Have my xbox one run through my imac but thats it. Which would be the easiest install? Better performance would be nice. But simple install with no major setbacks would be best. Thank you to anyone who can offer insight or help.

hi everyone! im new here... just wandering if the graphic card could be the issue with my mac frozing up & crashing often lately (worst and worst)

started out as pixelization freezing now & then to complete freeze & crash!!!

just did a backup & started fresh... mostly only have photoshop & firfox installed, plus i do not over use any real cpu overload or else (meaning i keep only a reasonable number of tab open at all time (not like the gazillion as i used too lol) computer still just crashed 2 time in 5 days!!!

here complete crash report for those who can read this & make sens out of it... any help well apreciated!

system spec:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: iMac

Model Identifier: iMac9,1

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 2

L2 Cache: 6 MB

Memory: 8 GB

Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

Boot ROM Version: IM91.008D.B08

SMC Version (system): 1.37f3

Serial Number (system): W89051A8250

Hardware UUID: 4750352D-3230-52A0-BFF8-A3DEDA853442

NVIDIA GeForce GT 130:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce GT 130

Type: GPU

Bus: PCIe

PCIe Lane Width: x16

VRAM (Total): 512 MB

Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)

Device ID: 0x062e

Revision ID: 0x00a1

ROM Revision: 3370

Displays:

iMac:

Display Type: LCD

Resolution: 1920 x 1200

Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Built-In: Yes

****CRASH REPORT****

Sat Jan 30 19:57:19 2016

*** Panic Report ***

panic(cpu 1 caller 0xffffff7f8b9a8bb4): NVRM[0/2:0:0]: Read Error 0x00070000: CFG 0x062e10de 0x00100406 0xd2000000, BAR0 0xd2000000 0xffffff8116013000 0x094700a1, D0, P1/4

Backtrace (CPU 1), Frame : Return Address

0xffffff8017223330 : 0xffffff800ad2ad21

0xffffff80172233b0 : 0xffffff7f8b9a8bb4

0xffffff8017223470 : 0xffffff7f8ba7218e

0xffffff80172234b0 : 0xffffff7f8bbf3b2e

0xffffff8017223500 : 0xffffff7f8bc69b4f

0xffffff8017223680 : 0xffffff7f8bc65818

0xffffff8017223770 : 0xffffff7f8ba4d2f0

0xffffff80172237f0 : 0xffffff7f8b97fb83

0xffffff80172238a0 : 0xffffff7f8b984c2d

0xffffff8017223960 : 0xffffff7f8b9ad673

0xffffff8017223b60 : 0xffffff7f8b9af225

0xffffff8017223c50 : 0xffffff7f8c9aa925

0xffffff8017223cb0 : 0xffffff7f8c9a75ef

0xffffff8017223d30 : 0xffffff7f8c99195a

0xffffff8017223d60 : 0xffffff7f8c94d1e2

0xffffff8017223d80 : 0xffffff7f8c95dcfb

0xffffff8017223db0 : 0xffffff7f8c95db9a

0xffffff8017223e00 : 0xffffff7f8c95da51

0xffffff8017223e50 : 0xffffff7f8c95dce5

0xffffff8017223e80 : 0xffffff7f8c94d870

0xffffff8017223ed0 : 0xffffff7f8c94b071

0xffffff8017223ef0 : 0xffffff800b2d595d

0xffffff8017223f40 : 0xffffff800b2d37cd

0xffffff8017223f80 : 0xffffff800b2d38c6

0xffffff8017223fb0 : 0xffffff800ae116e7

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task

Mac OS version:

14F1605

Kernel version:

Darwin Kernel Version 14.5.0: Tue Sep 1 21:23:09 PDT 2015; root:xnu-2782.50.1~1/RELEASE_X86_64

Kernel UUID: 06D286E3-A8A1-3BE7-A7EB-EAC6E0C69758

Kernel text base: 0xffffff800ac00000

__HIB text base: 0xffffff800ab00000

System model name: iMac9,1 (Mac-F2218FC8)

System uptime in nanoseconds: 120505627615773

last loaded kext at 119830174195334: com.apple.filesystems.ntfs 3.13 (addr 0xffffff7f8d48f000, size 380928)

last unloaded kext at 119889753850467: com.apple.driver.AppleUSBCDC 4.3.3b1 (addr 0xffffff7f8d40b000, size 16384)

loaded kexts:

com.apple.filesystems.ntfs 3.13

com.apple.filesystems.smbfs 3.0.2

com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch 85.3

com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC 1.70

com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor 1.9.5d0

com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager 4.3.6f3

com.apple.driver.AGPM 110.19.6

com.apple.filesystems.autofs 3.0

com.apple.driver.AppleOSXWatchdog 1

com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyHIDDriver 124

com.apple.driver.AppleHDA 272.18.3

com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyDriver 272.18.3

com.apple.iokit.IOUserEthernet 1.0.1

com.apple.Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X 7.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleHWAccess 1

com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin 1.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleLPC 1.7.3

com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport 4.3.6f3

com.apple.driver.AppleHV 1

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelSlowAdaptiveClocking 4.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleBacklight 170.7.4

com.apple.GeForceTesla 10.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient 3.6.1

com.apple.driver.AppleMCCSControl 1.2.12

com.apple.driver.AppleIRController 327.5

com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless 1.0.0d1

com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib 1.0.0

com.apple.BootCache 36

com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient 3.7.5

com.apple.driver.XsanFilter 404

com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage 2.7.1

com.apple.driver.AirPort.Brcm4331 800.20.24

com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI 5.5.2

com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort 3.1.2

com.apple.nvenet 2.0.22

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub 705.4.2

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI 705.4.14

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBOHCI 656.4.1

com.apple.driver.AppleRTC 2.0

com.apple.driver.AppleHPET 1.8

com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons 3.1

com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS 2.1

com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC 3.1

com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC 1.7

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient 218.0.0

com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall 161

com.apple.security.quarantine 3

com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet 8

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement 218.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHIDKeyboard 176.2

com.apple.driver.AppleHIDKeyboard 176.2

com.apple.driver.IOBluetoothHIDDriver 4.3.6f3

com.apple.driver.AppleMultitouchDriver 264.6

com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily 11

com.apple.AppleGraphicsDeviceControl 3.10.25

com.apple.kext.triggers 1.0

com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib 272.18.3

com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib 1.15

com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusPCI 1.0.12d1

com.apple.iokit.IOSurface 97.4

com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginLegacy 1.0.0

com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily 5.9.1d7

com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport 4.3.6f3

com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothFamily 4.3.6f3

com.apple.iokit.IOUSBUserClient 705.4.0

com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireIP 2.2.6

com.apple.iokit.IOSlowAdaptiveClockingFamily 1.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController 272.18.3

com.apple.iokit.IOHDAFamily 272.18.3

com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily 203.3

com.apple.vecLib.kext 1.2.0

com.apple.driver.AppleBacklightExpert 1.1.0

com.apple.driver.AppleSMC 3.1.9

com.apple.nvidia.classic.NVDANV50HalTesla 10.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusController 1.0.13d1

com.apple.nvidia.classic.NVDAResmanTesla 10.0.0

com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport 2.4.1

com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily 2.4.1

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHIDMouse 185.3

com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver 705.4.0

com.apple.driver.AppleHIDMouse 185.3

com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice 3.7.5

com.apple.iokit.IOUSBMassStorageClass 3.7.2

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub 705.4.0

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite 705.4.9

com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice 3.7.5

com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily 1.7

com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily 1.7.1

com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily 1.7.1

com.apple.iokit.IOAHCISerialATAPI 2.6.1

com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily 3.7.5

com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family 730.60

com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily 4.5.8

com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily 2.7.5

com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily 3.2

com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily 720.4.4

com.apple.driver.NVSMU 2.2.9

com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM 2.0

com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime 2.0

com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily 2.0.0

com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily 1.1

com.apple.security.sandbox 300.0

com.apple.kext.AppleMatch 1.0.0d1

com.apple.driver.AppleKeyStore 2

com.apple.driver.AppleMobileFileIntegrity 1.0.5

com.apple.driver.AppleCredentialManager 1.0

com.apple.driver.DiskImages 398

com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily 2.0

com.apple.iokit.IOReportFamily 31

com.apple.driver.AppleFDEKeyStore 28.30

com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform 3.1

com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily 2.9

com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily 1.4

com.apple.kec.Libm 1

com.apple.kec.pthread 1

com.apple.kec.corecrypto 1.0

Model: iMac9,1, BootROM IM91.008D.B08, 2 processors, Intel Core 2 Duo, 3.06 GHz, 8 GB, SMC 1.37f3

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 130, NVIDIA GeForce GT 130, PCIe, 512 MB

Memory Module: BANK 0/DIMM0, 4 GB, DDR3, 1067 MHz, 0x0198, 0x393955353432382D3035302E4130304C4620

Memory Module: BANK 1/DIMM0, 4 GB, DDR3, 1067 MHz, 0x0198, 0x393930353432382D3136342E4130304C4620

AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0x8E), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.106.98.100.24)

Bluetooth: Version 4.3.6f3 16238, 3 services, 27 devices, 1 incoming serial ports

Network Service: Wi-Fi, AirPort, en1

Serial ATA Device: WDC WD1001FALS-40K1B0, 1 TB

Serial ATA Device: OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5670S

USB Device: Built-in iSight

USB Device: IR Receiver

USB Device: HP USB Multimedia Keyboard

USB Device: Apple Optical USB Mouse

USB Device: BRCM2046 Hub

USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Thunderbolt Bus:

Hey Morph, greetings from NYC. Do you still have an hd6970m 2 gb? My late 2009 GPU just died so I'd be happy to take it off your hands. Because Apple Support has no PM, please email me; my email is visible to members.

Thank you!