can you use the imac 27" monitor with a standard gfx card?

davido_labido · 9 Jun 2013 at 21:45

a mate of mine has the new(est) 27" imac. He wants a little LAN machine so he doesnt have to take his mac with him. he doesnt want to have 2 monitors when hes at home though, so wants to connect his PC to his imac screen.

can it be done?

Gilbert89 · 9 Jun 2013 at 22:26

I am aware that this is possible, Just not sure how.

Im sure somebody will post with more info.

PR. · 9 Jun 2013 at 23:04

If it has a thunderbolt port then the only way to use the iMac as a monitor is to get a gfx card that outputs from a thunderbolt port, which I don't believe exist yet.

IIRC the 2010 iMac was the last iMac to support being used as an external monitor through a mini-dvi cable.

For this reason my next Mac will be a MacMini as I currently use my 2010 iMac as a display for my Games PC.

davido_labido · 10 Jun 2013 at 06:44

Damn it. I was hoping that there would be an adapter or something =( looks like he will have to have 2 monitors then.... I hate how apple stop ya doing things ya want to lol

GeX · 10 Jun 2013 at 11:31

PR. said:
If it has a thunderbolt port then the only way to use the iMac as a monitor is to get a gfx card that outputs from a thunderbolt port, which I don't believe exist yet.

IIRC the 2010 iMac was the last iMac to support being used as an external monitor through a mini-dvi cable.

For this reason my next Mac will be a MacMini as I currently use my 2010 iMac as a display for my Games PC.

Think of the Thundebolt connection as a PCI-E connection. It doesn't carry video signals, it carries a link to the bus. The 'graphics card' is inside the iMac / Thunderbolt display and so you need to provide it with a link the PCI-E bus, not a video signal. (Video signal over this cable is just DisplayPort/MiniDisplayPort, not Thunderbolt).

So.. in theory, you could connect another machine that has Thunderbolt.. but I'm not sure what would happen with drivers, graphics performance etc.

It is incredibly frustrating that there is no MiniDP input on the iMac / Thunderbolt display, it's stopped me from buying one. Most of the time it'd just have my MBP connected to it, but very occasionally I need to view output from other devices in my office - and because of that, I've discounted the Thunderbolt display entirely.

davido_labido · 10 Jun 2013 at 15:36

thanks foir the reply GeX. Macs are something that i sometimes (very rarely) use, but know little about. i just automatically assumed they were like the old ones, and id be able to connect an external source to them some how!

never mind, Cheers folks!