Chosen Solution

*I know how to google, if the only advice you can provide is from the 1st google page please move on. So I have a iMac Mid 2010, fitted with 16GB of RAM, an SSD, an HD 5670 512mb, and now an i5 680 (and a blu-ray drive!). I also have a compatible wifi/bluetooth 4.0 card lying around, but I didn’t install as it is a solder-job (and this is my family’s computer). So, my real question is, why can’t my machine run Mojave? The only thing I have found, is that my GPU doesn’t support metal. So, I have found a cheap mxm graphics card, HD 7650a 2GB, that apparently is supported (as it is a 7000 series AMD card). If you can verify compatibility, please do. If I flash this card to Apple’s firmware, and use a Mojave patch tool, will this machine see any issues running the latest OS? I know we are still in the Beta stages, but surely someone knows more than just a list of compatible Macs, what’s the REASON behind them being compatible? EDIT (12/16/18): I am surprisingly disappointed no one has tried this yet. As far I know, the latest and greatest consumer MXM graphics cards from both the Red and Green Teams are the RX 580 and the GTX 1080. Unfortunately, as my machine is the 21.5”, a full MXM card will not fit, only the half size. I know 3rd party patches exist for graphic cards to work with Macs, and AMD is better supported. So fine, I will buy this HD 7650a and attempt to patch it and run it in my iMac, then maybe the misinformation, dated theory, and “You can’t”s will finally cease.

OWC just put out a nice blog on Mojave: https://blog.macsales.com/45928-how-to-d…

There’s a lot of low level changes in Mojave, more than just the graphic services. For now I think we really need to wait until the gold release comes out to figure out what is workable and what is not. As for Metal support within the GPU has a lot to do with it running effectively given the added load of the newer Metal2 code. There is also the fact Apple does not want to test every system so they often draw a line based on the age of the system and/or what they need to protect from people jumping ship. As an example the older MacPro’s 2012 are still on the supported list with the newer GPU cards. As for burning your MXM card with the Apple firmware I would hold off on that for now you may encounter issues. Frankly, I would recommend you get a 2011 27” iMac and work things out from there. It too won’t support Mojave but they can be gotten used for quite little if you look. I would get a i7 if you can and then look at upgrading its hardware to run Mojave.

I am looking for the same answer regarding my mid-2010 iMac 27”. At this point I’ve successfully upgraded the CPU to an i7-870, added an SSD and lots of Ram, replaced a dead power supply, all using this great site. This machine is snappy and perfectly stable in High Sierra but to keep it going for a few more years (up to sync with all the latest services running in my more recent macs) I’d like to see if it’s possible to upgrade the GPU to a metal-compatible one. There must be someone out there testing this hack…? Cheers, L

Imac 4670 cards will work in Mojave with dosdude1 patch just fine. Boot screen and all! The only thing I have found is that Netflix does not work in Safari…but it does in Chrome… You can try a lot of mxm cards from other venders, like HP etc…and if you already have the Mojave patch up and running, then you must wait for the log in screen, until then it will be blank/black. BUT not all cards work at that point, just be patient. I have found that the HD4670 / HD4850 cards work really good, and i’m not playing games, but there are 2GB cards that work( with out the boot screen ) but they are older cards and their performance is…dated. All in all though, my 2009 and 2011 27” iMacs with a HD4670/HD4850 cards run Mojave quite nicely, with an SSD HDD and Mac Fan Control installed so I never have heat problems or noisy fans. I expect that the performance relative to newer iMacs isworth the $$ that I’m saving from getting a newer Mac that only runs moderately faster yet costs tremendously more. So stay away from the 5+6000 HD cards or get an Nvidia card , which runs cooler, and run the patch till Apple starts to NOT use intel chips (around 2020-2021 ?) anymore and we ALL have to either wait for a hack or buy a new Mac! Cheers! -iiebill

Hi, can you please update progress about HD 7650a , did you managed to install it and make it work?

I was running a 2010 27” with i5, 16Gb Ram, 256SSD + 3TB 3.5” HD, and the stock 1GB(512GB) GPU. It such a great system and I wanted to upgrade before even considering the price of a competent new iMac. As of last month. I successfully upgraded the CPu for an i7 “4core 870” (38$ eBay), 32Gb Ram(88$ eBay 4x8gb), Samsung Evo 850 1TB SSD (99$ eBay) and a GTX 765M 2GB GPu (79$ eBay). I went full upgrade and paid way much less than just getting me a working i7 for the same year and i ended up with a super machine. Nit to mention Metal capability GPU that’s currently Mojave. Altough i now run mojave, the Cinebench specs went down a few fps with the new gpu for some reason, so i would recommend a better GpU but only after someone else confirm they work as well as the 765M(ive seen some 880 8GB for around 250$). There are videos on YouTube and a lot of discussion around. I dont need the extra GPu since i don’t run any video making or anything rather parallels with Autocad. 

I needed no flashing, just a copy of Dosdude1 Mojave Patcher and to not let the Legacy video card patch run when the now compatible GPU was ready to run. I needed another system (i used a macbook) to install the mojave on an ssd with the patches for the 11.3 iMac, without the gpu patch. Also i had to sand down the heatsink to give space and avoid some components in the gpu from touching. Its all in the web… There are a couple of details one should know, but i can explain details to anyone trying this. Most is explained in videos and forums. I wish you success and that by now you had done it! yamil.riosgreen@gmail.com