2011 27" iMac - How Prevalent are GPU Issues?

[LOLZpersonok]

I've heard that the 27" iMacs from 2011 are prone to GPU issues. I just picked one up, and I'm only now hearing that this could be a potential problem in the future. I heard that GPU issues with 2006 iMacs and 2011 MacBook Pros are fairly prevalent, but I can't seem to figure out so much with the iMac. The one that I grabbed is working fine, and has no problems whatsoever. The hard drive was replaced with an SSD, and I intend on upgrading the CPU to the 3.4GHz Core i7 (no other reason than I can), as well as repasting both the CPU and GPU and dusting out the insides while I'm at it.

My question is how prevalent these GPU issues really are. I had a 2006 iMac that had GPU issues and I'd rather not have a repeat of that, especially since I spent a chunk of change on the machine. Nothing crazy, but not a trivial purchase either. Before you ask, I very intentionally stayed away from buying a brand new machine, since my intended usage is to basically just watch YouTube and movies on it (hence why it's an older model). I didn't like the idea of buying a new machine and spending the money - not just a new iMac, but even Windows all-in-one machines with questionable Linux support - just for the basic tasks I had in mind for it.

I have found that replacement GPUs can be purchased fairly easily but that comes with its own set of risks too, least of which purchasing another dead GPU.

To be clear, the machine I picked up has no problems at all. It works exactly as I'd expect it to, though to be fair I haven't tested any particularly GPU-intense tasks beyond 4K streaming (which the machine performs wonderfully). I don't expect it to have any problems with that, though.

 

[Blowback]

I've heard that the 27" iMacs from 2011 are prone to GPU issues. I just picked one up, and I'm only now hearing that this could be a potential problem in the future. I heard that GPU issues with 2006 iMacs and 2011 MacBook Pros are fairly prevalent, but I can't seem to figure out so much with the iMac. The one that I grabbed is working fine, and has no problems whatsoever. The hard drive was replaced with an SSD, and I intend on upgrading the CPU to the 3.4GHz Core i7 (no other reason than I can), as well as repasting both the CPU and GPU and dusting out the insides while I'm at it.

My question is how prevalent these GPU issues really are. I had a 2006 iMac that had GPU issues and I'd rather not have a repeat of that, especially since I spent a chunk of change on the machine. Nothing crazy, but not a trivial purchase either. Before you ask, I very intentionally stayed away from buying a brand new machine, since my intended usage is to basically just watch YouTube and movies on it (hence why it's an older model). I didn't like the idea of buying a new machine and spending the money - not just a new iMac, but even Windows all-in-one machines with questionable Linux support - just for the basic tasks I had in mind for it.

I have found that replacement GPUs can be purchased fairly easily but that comes with its own set of risks too, least of which purchasing another dead GPU.

To be clear, the machine I picked up has no problems at all. It works exactly as I'd expect it to, though to be fair I haven't tested any particularly GPU-intense tasks beyond 4K streaming (which the machine performs wonderfully). I don't expect it to have any problems with that, though.

For what it's worth my 2011 MBPro was killed by the issue. In all of my searching (back when it happened; ~ 2016 ) I don't really remember coming across the same issue being addressed to the iMac. But do make sure to do an Apple Support Communities Site search also....though if you don't find it addressed here that would be a good omen.

 

[Blowback]

I've heard that the 27" iMacs from 2011 are prone to GPU issues. I just picked one up, and I'm only now hearing that this could be a potential problem in the future. I heard that GPU issues with 2006 iMacs and 2011 MacBook Pros are fairly prevalent, but I can't seem to figure out so much with the iMac. The one that I grabbed is working fine, and has no problems whatsoever. The hard drive was replaced with an SSD, and I intend on upgrading the CPU to the 3.4GHz Core i7 (no other reason than I can), as well as repasting both the CPU and GPU and dusting out the insides while I'm at it.

My question is how prevalent these GPU issues really are. I had a 2006 iMac that had GPU issues and I'd rather not have a repeat of that, especially since I spent a chunk of change on the machine. Nothing crazy, but not a trivial purchase either. Before you ask, I very intentionally stayed away from buying a brand new machine, since my intended usage is to basically just watch YouTube and movies on it (hence why it's an older model). I didn't like the idea of buying a new machine and spending the money - not just a new iMac, but even Windows all-in-one machines with questionable Linux support - just for the basic tasks I had in mind for it.

I have found that replacement GPUs can be purchased fairly easily but that comes with its own set of risks too, least of which purchasing another dead GPU.

To be clear, the machine I picked up has no problems at all. It works exactly as I'd expect it to, though to be fair I haven't tested any particularly GPU-intense tasks beyond 4K streaming (which the machine performs wonderfully). I don't expect it to have any problems with that, though.

You may want take a look at this 2011 MBP thread:

Force 2011 MacBook Pro 8,2 with failed AMD GPU to ALWAYS use Intel integrated GPU (EFI variable fix)

If you don't have time to read my story (which also describes some interesting technical approaches) just scroll down this thread until a "100% WORKING SOLUTION" text Discrete AMD GPU of my 2011 MacBook Pro 8,2 has finally failed because of the reasons mentioned here (...

forums.macrumors.com

There may be one or two others on MacRumors also. Good luck.

 

[Juicy Box]

I've heard that the 27" iMacs from 2011 are prone to GPU issues.

They do seem to have a higher than normal failure rate, but it is my theory (and some others) that the high failure may end up being to excessive heat from the HDD.

The HDDs runs really hot in these machines.

Since the HDD was already swapped for a SSD, you are good to go there.

 

[LOLZpersonok]

They do seem to have a higher than normal failure rate, but it is my theory (and some others) that the high failure may end up being to excessive heat from the HDD.

The HDDs runs really hot in these machines.

Since the HDD was already swapped for a SSD, you are good to go there.

I hope you're right about that! It's still my plan to eventually clean out the inside and repaste the CPU and GPU, and since it's not currently having any problems, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

 

[Juicy Box]

I don't really remember coming across the same issue being addressed to the iMac.

The Late 2009 to Mid 2011 iMacs did have high GPU failures, I personally replaced (well, baked one) the GPU in two Mid 2011 iMacs.

The reason it probably doesn't pop up as much on people's radars compared to the MBPs (I also have a 17" Late 2011 MBP) is that there was an Apple repair program to have the logic boards replaced in the MBPs.

My 17" Late 2011 MBP had the logic board replaced *two times* under the repair program.

 

[LOLZpersonok]

You may want take a look at this 2011 MBP thread:

Force 2011 MacBook Pro 8,2 with failed AMD GPU to ALWAYS use Intel integrated GPU (EFI variable fix)

If you don't have time to read my story (which also describes some interesting technical approaches) just scroll down this thread until a "100% WORKING SOLUTION" text Discrete AMD GPU of my 2011 MacBook Pro 8,2 has finally failed because of the reasons mentioned here (...

forums.macrumors.com

There may be one or two others on MacRumors also. Good luck.

I searched through that whole thread there, I only found one report of an iMac (same as mine, GPU included) that had issues. A site-wide search didn't really yield anything, nor did a web search (unless my search terms weren't quite right). Since it's not having any problems now, I'll just use the machine for now and keep my fingers crossed that nothing bad happens.

 

[Juicy Box]

I searched through that whole thread there, I only found one report of an iMac (same as mine, GPU included) that had issues. A site-wide search didn't really yield anything, nor did a web search (unless my search terms weren't quite right). Since it's not having any problems now, I'll just use the machine for now and keep my fingers crossed that nothing bad happens.

Since that thread is about MBPs, and specifically how to force a MBP to use the Intel graphics for a failed discreet GPU, it isn't surprising that you didn't find anything about iMacs.

But, there is plenty of results with Google:

🔎 Mid 2011 iMac GPU failure - Google Search

www.google.com

 

[Juicy Box]

Just add Macrumors to the search to see all the MR threads about it.

 

[RokinAmerica]

Not trying to be mean, but it is a 12-year-old computer. It working is just a huge plus.

 

[theMarble]

It was/is a huge problem.

The reason the GPU's died was because the lead-free solder that connected the GPU die to the substrate (green board) cracked under high temperature. The 6xx0M chips ran very hot, even compared to the hotter 5000 chips.
When the GPU was heated up and cooled down hundreds if not thousands of times, the solder would start to crack.

After a few years of use, the cracks would be too large and the GPU couldn't connect properly. This was mostly AMD's fault as they did not use the appropriate solder, however partial blame can also be put on Apple for an inadequate thermal dissipation system.

All will die at some point. There is no way to prevent it from failing, reflows are only very temporary fixes and unlike NVIDIA and the G84 602/603 saga, AMD never released a followup revision that fixed the issue. This meant that Apple had to replace faulty chips with other "going to fail at some point" chips.

Every Apple product that used Radeon HD 6xx0M chips is affected, this includes the:
- 15" MacBook Pro (Early 2011 & Late 2011)
- 17" MacBook Pro (Early 2011 & Late 2011)
- 21.5" iMac (Mid 2011)
- 27" iMac (Mid 2011)
- Mac mini (Mid 2011, with the Radeon HD 6630M chip. HD 3000 models were unaffected)

The only way to counter this is to fully disable the Radeon chip, either through software like dosdude1's solution, or through a soldered on GPU killer chip like the CMIzapper Tiresias (on the MacBook Pro). The downside of this is that you will not be able to plug in an external display through the Thunderbolt port, as that was controlled by the Radeon. A way around this on the 17" MacBook Pro is to run a GPU with a ExpressCard34 to PCIe enclosure.

@Juicy Box While the hard drives did get very hot, they were never the root cause of the failure.

You don't have to replace the dead GPU with another 6000 series. Since the GPU is on a MXM card in the iMac's (MXM-A on the 21.5", MXM-B on the 27"), you have a myriad of more modern GPUs available. Good options include the GTX 765M, Quadro K1100M, K3100M and the Radeon WX 4130M/4150M.

 

[theMarble]

Not trying to be mean, but it is a 12-year-old computer. It working is just a huge plus.

True, but typically Apple computers work for a very long time if cared for. My G3 Blue and White is nearing 24 years old in March, and still works great. (Rev A, 350MHz)

 

[Juicy Box]

@Juicy Box While the hard drives did get very hot, they were never the root cause of the failure.

Nice rundown on the issue.

I wonder if taking the hot HDD out for a SSD would help reduce a chance of failure. I had two Mid 2011 iMacs, both seem to run a lot cooler, especially at the top of the case, after replacing the HDD with a SSD.

One of them was a dumpster find. My friend found it in the trash, but couldn't get it to boot. Knowing my interest in Macs, he gave it to me.

It had a failed 2GB AMD Radeon HD 6970M, which I baked and got it working again.

I gave it back to the friend, as I have plenty of Macs, and he mostly uses it for Windows gaming. That was four years ago, and it is still working.

The HDD that was inside was a 2TB Seagate. I used it externally with a USB/SATA cable, and it was really hot. I can only imagine how much hotter it would get when cramped in the HDD bay of the iMac.

While the GPU failures may not be directly due to the HDDs, I am sure the heat did not have a positive impact on the cooling the GPU.

True, but typically Apple computers work for a very long time if cared for.

Most of my Macs in my signature are still running, with the exception of the Power Mac 6300, iMac G5, Power Mac G5, Mid 2007 iMac, and Late 2012 iMac. The last two had a GPU failure.

I am just now realizing that I am missing a few in my signature that I still have in my collection. For the working ones, a Power Mac G4 MDD, another Late 2012 iMac, and two more Late 2013 iMacs. I have a M2 Pro Mac Mini coming soon.

The ones not working that are not on my signature (at least at the moment) is a Mid 2011 iMac.


Macs can last a very long time, most of the Macs that daily drive are at least ten years old: a M1 Mac Mini, two Late 2013 iMacs, Late 2012 iMac, Mid 2012 MBA, Late 2011 17" MBP (on its third logic board), and my oldest one that is used daily is my 2006 Mac Pro 1,1, used primarily as a Plex server.

After I get my new M2 Pro Mac Mini, I am going to retire my 2006 Mac Pro 1,1 and replace it with my M1 Mac Mini with some external drives.

 

[Stevenyo]

I've heard that the 27" iMacs from 2011 are prone to GPU issues. I just picked one up, and I'm only now hearing that this could be a potential problem in the future. I heard that GPU issues with 2006 iMacs and 2011 MacBook Pros are fairly prevalent, but I can't seem to figure out so much with the iMac. The one that I grabbed is working fine, and has no problems whatsoever. The hard drive was replaced with an SSD, and I intend on upgrading the CPU to the 3.4GHz Core i7 (no other reason than I can), as well as repasting both the CPU and GPU and dusting out the insides while I'm at it.

My question is how prevalent these GPU issues really are. I had a 2006 iMac that had GPU issues and I'd rather not have a repeat of that, especially since I spent a chunk of change on the machine. Nothing crazy, but not a trivial purchase either. Before you ask, I very intentionally stayed away from buying a brand new machine, since my intended usage is to basically just watch YouTube and movies on it (hence why it's an older model). I didn't like the idea of buying a new machine and spending the money - not just a new iMac, but even Windows all-in-one machines with questionable Linux support - just for the basic tasks I had in mind for it.

I have found that replacement GPUs can be purchased fairly easily but that comes with its own set of risks too, least of which purchasing another dead GPU.

To be clear, the machine I picked up has no problems at all. It works exactly as I'd expect it to, though to be fair I haven't tested any particularly GPU-intense tasks beyond 4K streaming (which the machine performs wonderfully). I don't expect it to have any problems with that, though.

Anecdotally, both 2011 iMacs family members owned lost their gpus. But honestly, I’d kinda assume one that made it 12 years will keep on trucking at this point, issues seem like they probably would have happened already

 

[theMarble]

Most of my Macs in my signature are still running, with the exception of the Power Mac 6300, iMac G5, Power Mac G5, Mid 2007 iMac, and Late 2012 iMac. The last two had a GPU failure.

I am just now realizing that I am missing a few in my signature that I still have in my collection. For the working ones, a Power Mac G4 MDD, another Late 2012 iMac, and two more Late 2013 iMacs. I have a M2 Pro Mac Mini coming soon.

The ones not working that are not on my signature (at least at the moment) is a Mid 2011 iMac.

I'm very lucky that my Dual 2.7 G5 (known as the least reliable G5 ever made) still works great. A couple hard drives have died but these days runs with 4.5GB of RAM and a 480GB RAID0 array. I see that yours is a 2.3, is that a 2.3DP or the 2.3DC?

The only system I have that has "died" is my A1046 (the first 15" AlBook). Has a myriad of issues these days, however it was a tank, lasting around a decade (give or take a few months), the first ~1-2 years being used daily for web browsing, documents, PPC gaming and some 480p video editing.

 

[sam_dean]

What I will say will be callous and selfish.

Your iMac is approaching a dozen years old.

It received its final Security Update over 2 years ago last Nov 2020

I'd liquidate it to someone else so it becomes their problem.

I'd replace it with the future 2023 iMac so you can enjoy it until its final Security Update come year 2033.

 

[CraigJDuffy]

I've heard that the 27" iMacs from 2011 are prone to GPU issues. I just picked one up, and I'm only now hearing that this could be a potential problem in the future. I heard that GPU issues with 2006 iMacs and 2011 MacBook Pros are fairly prevalent, but I can't seem to figure out so much with the iMac. The one that I grabbed is working fine, and has no problems whatsoever. The hard drive was replaced with an SSD, and I intend on upgrading the CPU to the 3.4GHz Core i7 (no other reason than I can), as well as repasting both the CPU and GPU and dusting out the insides while I'm at it.

My question is how prevalent these GPU issues really are. I had a 2006 iMac that had GPU issues and I'd rather not have a repeat of that, especially since I spent a chunk of change on the machine. Nothing crazy, but not a trivial purchase either. Before you ask, I very intentionally stayed away from buying a brand new machine, since my intended usage is to basically just watch YouTube and movies on it (hence why it's an older model). I didn't like the idea of buying a new machine and spending the money - not just a new iMac, but even Windows all-in-one machines with questionable Linux support - just for the basic tasks I had in mind for it.

I have found that replacement GPUs can be purchased fairly easily but that comes with its own set of risks too, least of which purchasing another dead GPU.

To be clear, the machine I picked up has no problems at all. It works exactly as I'd expect it to, though to be fair I haven't tested any particularly GPU-intense tasks beyond 4K streaming (which the machine performs wonderfully). I don't expect it to have any problems with that, though.

My 2011 iMac died due to GPU failure but I replaced the GPU in 2015 and it’s been going fine since. It’s an easy enough DIY repair and if you upgrade to a metal compatible GPU you can upgrade. I’ve got Monterey running on mine the now

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I've heard that the 27" iMacs from 2011 are prone to GPU issues. I just picked one up, and I'm only now hearing that this could be a potential problem in the future. I heard that GPU issues with 2006 iMacs and 2011 MacBook Pros are fairly prevalent, but I can't seem to figure out so much with the iMac. The one that I grabbed is working fine, and has no problems whatsoever. The hard drive was replaced with an SSD, and I intend on upgrading the CPU to the 3.4GHz Core i7 (no other reason than I can), as well as repasting both the CPU and GPU and dusting out the insides while I'm at it.

My question is how prevalent these GPU issues really are. I had a 2006 iMac that had GPU issues and I'd rather not have a repeat of that, especially since I spent a chunk of change on the machine. Nothing crazy, but not a trivial purchase either. Before you ask, I very intentionally stayed away from buying a brand new machine, since my intended usage is to basically just watch YouTube and movies on it (hence why it's an older model). I didn't like the idea of buying a new machine and spending the money - not just a new iMac, but even Windows all-in-one machines with questionable Linux support - just for the basic tasks I had in mind for it.

I have found that replacement GPUs can be purchased fairly easily but that comes with its own set of risks too, least of which purchasing another dead GPU.

To be clear, the machine I picked up has no problems at all. It works exactly as I'd expect it to, though to be fair I haven't tested any particularly GPU-intense tasks beyond 4K streaming (which the machine performs wonderfully). I don't expect it to have any problems with that, though.

I would advise you not to do any upgrade to your iMac.
Its configurations (CPU, SSD, stock GPU) are quite decent for your usage.
You might be able to use it for another 4-5 years without any GPU issues.
If you really want to upgrade the GPU eventually, read the famous thread about GPU upgrading first.

 

[PsychoSync]

I also have a 2011 27" iMac with a 6970M GPU and it is running fine. I bought it from someone for 60$ that thought the screen was dead but the connector was just not seated properly!

I was thinking that maybe the 2GB 6970 gpus are MAYBE more reliable than the 1GB... Maybe? As it was a CTO. Maybe?

Probably not. I'm just lucky.

My daughter plays Roblox on it almost every weekend, i set up MacSpeedFan to start the fan at 60 degrees. No issues.

For now!

 

[theMarble]

I was thinking that maybe the 2GB 6970 gpus are MAYBE more reliable than the 1GB... Maybe? As it was a CTO. Maybe?

Probably not. I'm just lucky.

Pure luck I'd say. No 6000M chip is more reliable than another, apart from maybe the 6630M used in the Mac mini which didn't have as many reported failures.