How do I upgrade my PC to support DisplayPort Alternate Mode?

[MichaelW]

Hello all

I have recently bought the Gigabyte M32Q KVM monitor which in theory allows me to press a button and switch between KVM of two different machines (work and home, for example), with a single set of peripherals.

The website (here) says I need to connect monitor to machine with a 10Gbps USB 3.1 type C cable, and that the machine outputting the video must be "USB Type-C devices with DisplayPort Alternate Mode Support". My work PC has this already, but my home PC is just a standard desktop and I don't think it does - despite the motherboard I/O having a USB-C, there's no mention of Alternate Mode on the spec sheet.

This is all new to me and I'm getting confused by google results,

1. Does the USB-C cable carry video as well as K/M info, in which case how would a motherboard output video anyway? (I have a discrete GPU and that doesn't have USB-C output).

2. Do I need to buy some new adapter or a PCI card to get my desktop to work with the USB-C Alternate Mode?

3. What is the cheapest way or is there something I'm missing here? Any info helpful as I'm just downright confused now

Edit - sorry I realise I didn't give much system detail. The motherboard is AsRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX/ac, and the graphics cards are a 1070 soon to be upgraded to a 3080 (neither has USB-C output I believe).

Thanks
Michael

 

[Baddass]

Pretty sure you can connect the Pc just via Displayport and the laptop via the usb C and that should work fine for the video side of things with the monitor then switching between the two input sources (since there’s only a single usb C video input on the monitor anyway)

then the Pc needs connecting to the monitor by usb data (so that the keyboard and mouse can communicate with both machines), and I think that can be either via the usb C data port to your Pc or via the normal usb A-B connection

that’s off the top of my head but I think that’s how it should work. It’s rarer for a desktop Pc to have a usb C with video DP alt mode, that’s more for the laptop

 

[MichaelW]

Thank you, that makes sense. I will try that set up