Most main stream cards only have HDMI, and Displayport. Some are now including USBC - not sure if that will work for you and the Studio display.
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Apple Studio Display Windows Compatibility
- Thread starter kreasu_
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That's going to make things tricky then. No point in putting together a PC if I can't be sure it's going to work.
But if they don't have an appropriate port?
Damn, I really thought this was going to be straightforward.
The computer industry has not universally embraced thunderbolt and GPU makers rely on HDMI and Displayport.
Plugging in a RTX 3050 into your PC, and then using a TB cable from the PC to the monitor may work. I really don't know.
Apple decides to chart its own course and sometimes that prevents cross platform compatibility
PC graphic cards do not have TB ports because why would they? as it is only Apple who has adopted TB for monitors. There might be the odd one PC graphics card that has TB on it but question would be is it a rare card and how expensive is it.
As pointed out in that website, if a PC gamer wanted to use the strength of the graphic card on an ASD they would have to use a displayport to usb-c cable but in doing so you would not be able to use the ASD speakers because the signalling to use the ASD speakers comes from the TB port. Again, as pointed out in the website, if a gamer wants to use the speakers of the ASD then they would have to purchase a motherboard that supports TB but the problem of doing this is that you would have to use the motherboards onboard GPU thus negating the use of a graphics card.
In my opinion, the only solution to your problem is that you find a motherboard that supports TB and has a soldered on high end gaming graphics chip. It might even be possible to find a gaming laptop that has those requirements because many gaming laptops have soldered on high end GPU's. I've seen many that have Nvidia 3080 GPU's in them. Therefore it could be possible to use a gaming laptop as just a mini type thin desktop, connect an external keyboard and mouse to the laptop, connect the laptop to the ASD via a TB port on the laptop.
Bare in mind that the above is pure guess work and might not even work but yet, if you thought this was going to be a simple case of buying a gaming PC, put a decent graphics card in it and hook it up to you ASD then nope, not going to happen. It's going to take specific hardware and then again it might not even work due to driver issues.
As pointed out in that website, if a PC gamer wanted to use the strength of the graphic card on an ASD they would have to use a displayport to usb-c cable but in doing so you would not be able to use the ASD speakers because the signalling to use the ASD speakers comes from the TB port. Again, as pointed out in the website, if a gamer wants to use the speakers of the ASD then they would have to purchase a motherboard that supports TB but the problem of doing this is that you would have to use the motherboards onboard GPU thus negating the use of a graphics card.
In my opinion, the only solution to your problem is that you find a motherboard that supports TB and has a soldered on high end gaming graphics chip. It might even be possible to find a gaming laptop that has those requirements because many gaming laptops have soldered on high end GPU's. I've seen many that have Nvidia 3080 GPU's in them. Therefore it could be possible to use a gaming laptop as just a mini type thin desktop, connect an external keyboard and mouse to the laptop, connect the laptop to the ASD via a TB port on the laptop.
Bare in mind that the above is pure guess work and might not even work but yet, if you thought this was going to be a simple case of buying a gaming PC, put a decent graphics card in it and hook it up to you ASD then nope, not going to happen. It's going to take specific hardware and then again it might not even work due to driver issues.
PC motherboards may have a DisplayPort input to get DisplayPort from a discrete GPU into the Thunderbolt controller. Or a PC motherboard may support a Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 4 add-in card that has DisplayPort inputs.
If you don't have Thunderbolt with DisplayPort input, then a DisplayPort to USB-C adapter can combine USB and DisplayPort into a USB-C DisplayPort Alt Mode connection. Examples are Wacom Link Plus, Belkin Charge and Sync Cable, Sunix UPD2018.
I believe the audio of the Studio Display is USB, not Thunderbolt so it should work with Thunderbolt input or USB-C DisplayPort Alt Mode input.
This is exactly what I hoped I'd be able to do.
Oh well, it was worth a thought. If only Apple would actually implement the native steering wheel support they promised for Ventura.
Not sure why recent posts on this thread seem to miss out on everything that was previously posted. Lots of options to make this work, lots of people have. Thunderbolt add-in cards that take the GPU card DisplayPort output and turn it into TB. MSI motherboards that have that DP to TB built in. The Belkin VR cable. The Wacom box. Just using a standard DP to USB-C cable and using external speakers rather than the built-ins. Most people who are unable to get it to work are trying to use work laptops with insufficient specs and that are locked down so they can’t update the drivers or are using PCs with old GPUs that don’t support display stream compression.
You missed the most important point the OP has been making. It has to be 'hassle free' because the OP in their own words said they are not a 'techie' and to get ASD to work with a windows computer needs someone who is clued up on computer tech stuff. The OP is not one of those people. So whilst it is possible to get an ASD to work with a windows computer, it is not a simple thing to do.
Go look at the last post from the OP. Basically they want it to be as simple as possible as just buying a windows pc, stick a good graphics card in it and connect it to their ASD and everything works. As I said in my posts, that scenario is never going to happen.
Hi, not sure if somebody else brought this up before but at least I didn't see it while skimming through this thread. I got my Studio Display to work fine with my PC (RTX 3080) by using the Belkin VR Cable. I also got the brightness controls working with the Bootcamp drivers.
The only issue that's left is that the Display doesn't turn on on it's own when I connect it to the PC and start it up. I always have to unplug the power cord and put it back in for it to work. It's not the end of the world but still annoying.
Is this a known/fixable issue or do I just have to live with it?
The only issue that's left is that the Display doesn't turn on on it's own when I connect it to the PC and start it up. I always have to unplug the power cord and put it back in for it to work. It's not the end of the world but still annoying.
Is this a known/fixable issue or do I just have to live with it?
Does connecting it to a power bar that has a switch work? Then use the switch to disconnect and reconnect power so you don't wear out the power cable/plug?
Yes, that would work and in fact it is already connected to one. But everything else is too. So the PC also turns off
But I'll see if I can find a different spot just for it. There's not enough outlets in that corner of my room unfortunately.
Are both USB plugs on the Belkin cable plugged into receptacles on the the PC motherboard backplane and not a hub? I'd recommend trying different USB receptacles. The Belkin cable is very reliable for this and I personally have used it with a 3080, 3090, and 4090 with no problems like this. That said, the way the USB connections on the Belkin cable work has never been entirely clear - it appears that one of them is used for data and the other is used for power. The ASD is not know for having a wake from sleep problem with this cable but the LG 5K monitor used to have an issue if it didn't see the USB power, it wouldn't wake. It's possible that this is similar.
I did see that. It's clearly not hassle free and I wouldn't recommend it to a first time PC user or someone who isn't willing to invest in trial and error. That said, your answer was referencing a blog post that was written before this entire thread started nearly 300 posts ago. Since that time, the state of knowledge around getting a PC to work with the ASD has progressed significantly and the author of that blog post mentions but never obtained the Belkin cable which has been the gold standard for getting the ASD to work. Also, you seemed to say in your responses that you needed a "motherboard that supports TB and has a soldered on high end gaming graphics chip". This isn't correct, you can use a TB add-in card or a mainboard that has displayport-in (such as several of MSI's). I acknowledge that finding the right motherboard that has TB compatibility is challenging - most motherboard vendors don't explain which mainboards are compatible with their thunderbolt add-in cards and few of them seem to even bother testing whether these work with any monitors, let alone the Apple Studio Display. Finally, what we've seen many times on this thread is that a high-end PC laptop with a soldered-in GPU and a thunderbolt port tends to have the most problems with the ASD and also tends to the be hardest to debug when it fails to work. Why that is, I'm not sure, but lots of posts from unhappy laptop users.
Thanks for the tip. I played around with the placement of the usb connectors but no luck. They're directly plugged into the motherboard. I tested different ways like directly next to each other, one at the top the other at the bottom but no change.
Sound and peripherals are working though. When I turn on the PC, my mouse which is connected to the ASD lights up and when I remove/connect one of the usb or the DP connector I can hear the windows device connect/disconnect sound.
Hmm, other thing to check is to make sure GSync is turned off. That said, this seems like an energy saver thing, either on the USB ports or the DisplayPort. Just to be clear, you've got a PC hooked up directly to the ASD via the Belkin cable? Not going through a switch box or anything? Make sure the Belkin cable us plugged into the first DisplayPort port on the 3080 and connected to the correct input port on the ASD. Can you post what motherboard you have? Also, I assume you have a Mac as well and you've used it to update the ASD to the latest firmware? Lastly, is anything else plugged into either the 3080 or the motherboard's display output ports?
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GSync was still turned on. Turning it off made no difference unfortunately. Yes, the PC is directly hooked up to the ASD via the Belkin cable. No switches, hubs or anything. It is plugged into the correct input port as otherwise it wouldn't work at all even after unplugging the power cord. Only the display port for the Belkin cable is used, no other display outputs have anything plugged into them. Connecting it to my M1 max MacBook Pro works without issues and the firmware is the latest one.
The motherboard is an msi MPG x570 Gaming Edge Wifi with a Ryzen 7 3700x.
Edit: another observation: When I turn on the PC with the display port connector of the Belkin cable not plugged in and then plug it in while the PC is running, the ASD turns on immediately (works with any of the 3 DP outputs of the 3080)
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Thanks for the details. I googled that motherboard and it seems like people have seen other issues with monitors not waking up on startup, a few threads like this one. Might want to try this firmware update on your GPU. What happens if you unplug and plug in the USB cables while leaving the Displayport connector plugged in? Does the monitor wake up?
Yes, unplugging the USB cables and putting them back wakes up the display. It's just weird because the mouse and keyboard are already usable at the beginning, there's just no display output.
I tried doing the firmware update but it said it was already up to date. I also did a bios update but that didn't help either.
I'll look further into potential issues with the motherboard. But I never had any issues with other monitors over DP or HDMI.
Just speculation on my part but I think that the motherboard is not sending power to the USB cables until after the time that the GPU is looking for a connection and that's why it's not coming on. In the past when I've seen the Belkin cable not work, trying a different USB port on the back of the PC solved the problem (some of the USB ports on the back, typically depending on color-code, remain powered while the motherboard is asleep while others get powered up later in the startup process). That motherboard has 7 different USB ports on it and I'd suggest trying some other combinations or conversely I'd try a powered USB hub. I'd also look at the BIOS to see if there's anything around USB power. The other thing to see if what happens if you start the PC with something like a TV connected to the HDMI port and does the ASD wake up once Windows finishes booting. If that works, then putting in an HDMI Dummy Plug might be the workaround. Finally, I hate to suggest you spend more money, but this cable should light up the monitor on startup but without any of the USB functionality (sound, camera, brightness). If it doesn't, then there's a different problem, probably in the BIOS settings.
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Hey guys! I plugged ASD to the following Win11 config: z590i Vision D, 10900K, rtx 3080. GPU is connected to DP-in on MB via DP 1.4. And ASD goes in TB4 MB slot. Monitor is black, but windows recognizes it and uses just ASD speakers...?? ASD itself works well when I connect it to mac (with any of the used TB cables - apple's or belkin's)
What has been done so far:
1) ASD is updated via mac os Ventura to the latest firmware
2) Win Nvidia drivers are up to date
3) I installed TB drivers from gigabyte website, but I'm not sure if it's finishing installation properly as I don't see any final message about installation success.
4) I don't see TB settings in bios for some reason, is it possible that it works by default and no setting should be present?
5) I flashed the bios to the latest version + I tried 3 more older revisions but no luck.
Also I found that the front M.2 slot is not functional on my MB for some reason, not sure if it's related
If someone could share his experience or any suggestions I'd greatly appreciate it..
What has been done so far:
1) ASD is updated via mac os Ventura to the latest firmware
2) Win Nvidia drivers are up to date
3) I installed TB drivers from gigabyte website, but I'm not sure if it's finishing installation properly as I don't see any final message about installation success.
4) I don't see TB settings in bios for some reason, is it possible that it works by default and no setting should be present?
5) I flashed the bios to the latest version + I tried 3 more older revisions but no luck.
Also I found that the front M.2 slot is not functional on my MB for some reason, not sure if it's related
If someone could share his experience or any suggestions I'd greatly appreciate it..
I figured out that my front M.2 slot is not working because I have 10th gen CPU which is limited by PCI-e 3.0. Front m.2 slot works only on 11th gen intels with PCI-e 4.0 support.
I wonder if I don't see any thunderbolt settings in bios for the same reason..
Try the other TB4 port. According to the manual, you're plugged into the correct TB4 port but worth trying the other TB4 port. Also try a different port on the back of the GPU. According to the Z590i Vision D manual, there should be BIOS settings for Thunderbolt present. Do you have a separate monitor you can hook up to look at settings (Thunderbolt Control Center, Device Manager, Nvidia Control Panel)?
Thanks. I had no luck with the USB ports but I plugged in my second monitor that I usually only use with my MacBook and that works. So the additional HDMI output makes it work. That's fine for me, thank you very much for the help!
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Ok, you may want to get an HDMI dummy plug then and that might fix the problem too.
I actually got the same problem with my Belkin VR Cable and PC. Motherboard is a bit older (forgot the name, CPU is 3770k), GPU is a RTX 2080. Display wont start on a fresh boot, reconnecting the cable on the display makes it turn on immediately.
Do you think a HDMI Dummy Plug might make it work since Legetrekt „fixed“ it by connecting a different display as well via hdmi?