Target Display mode

I can't speak for Thunderbolt, but my 2009 iMac works fine in Target Display Mode with my PC.

 

I haven't tried it. But I know ASUS put out a Thunderbolt card that loops through a DisplayPort-equipped GPU with the goal of getting Thunderbolt video output. If your mobo has true Thunderbolt video output, 2011+ iMacs and thunderbolt displays will take them as input.

 

Please read:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3775

 

Have you actually seen this done? If so, where?

I've seen a PC motherboard with Thunderbolt support drive Apple's Thunderbolt Display. But I've never seen a PC drive an iMac screen in target display mode. I even bought a new Thunderbolt motherboard for my gaming rig, thinking it would be able to output video to my 2011 iMac, but I haven't gotten it to work. The PC recognizes the Thunderbolt bus but doesn't recognize the iMac as a possible monitor, so video can't be output to it.

If anybody has this working, please let me know. I have a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP4 TH with dual Thunderbolt ports.

 

I don't have a 2011 iMac, so no, I haven't seen it

Your problem though is that your thunderbolt port isn't connected to the GPU. I know ASUS solved this problem with an extra expansion card you can use with one of their mobos. I don't know of anyone else who's put out a solution.

 

Not true. The Thunderbolt port is connected to the integrated graphics on my Intel chip.

This is why the PC motherboard Thunderbolt works with Apple's display.

 

That's hardly helpful for gaming anyway...

Silly question.. did you try hitting CMD-F2 to activate target display mode before attaching the Tbolt cable?

 

Actually it works fine for gaming. There is virtualization software that can utilize the discrete GPU.

Yes, I tried Command—F2 countless times, and various boot orders; PC first then iMac, iMac then PC, both at the same time. Nothing works.

 

And is CMD-F2 doing anything at all? Are you using an Apple keyboard? (I'm reading right now that the F-keys don't always send the expected call for a system function on third party keyboards).

 

Yup, using the Apple keyboard that came with my iMac. I've also tried Command—Fn—F2, which also doesn't work.

 

I'm beginning to wonder if there's just something wrong with your Mac.

 

Why would you think that? Does the Command-F2 shortcut do anything when the iMac isn't connected to a Thunderbolt source (or a non-video Thunderbolt source like a hard drive)? No.

This makes me think that my problems aren't with the iMac but with my Thunderbolt PC motherboard and the way it outputs video, if it's outputting through Thunderbolt at all. That's why I came here to ask if anyone else had ever gotten this to work, but apparently I'm alone.

 

Sorry, I thought you said you had gotten this to work, showing video on your ATD. If that's the case, the motherboard appears to be doing its job.

 

Checking in

I'm running into the same issue, but I'm using a 2011 MBA and a 2011 iMac 27in, connected via Apple TB cable. But I get absolutely no response from the iMac (when in System Preferences the cmd-F2 gives an error beep, so I know a keypress is being registered). Anyone gotten this to work recently (I had it working previously with another machine running 10.7, but this one is running 10.8-maybe its an OS issue?)

 

few cent from me

Gigabyte Z77X-UP5 TH and i try to work it with 27' 2011 iMac in TDM and it don't, event worse IMac went to sleep mode and don't wake up till (TB cable pull out) reboot.... wherever i tried i think its some software issue with 2011 iMac's in TDM support for non apple thunderbolt devices

 

How did you both go? Did either of you manage to get it working? I was looking at building a gaming PC with the same motherboard while using the new 27" iMac as the display, but wanted to make sure it was possible before forking out the money.

 

It doesn't work. I don't believe it will ever work; Apple is slow to release firmware updates to support their own hardware. I don't think they'll ever put any effort into making the iMac usable as a monitor for a Windows Thunderbolt machine. This is an extremely rare use case, and this is maybe the only thread out there even actively discussing it.

If you really want a 27" iMac, just upgrade the graphics enough to game on it. Otherwise, you'll have to buy another separate monitor. It definitely sucks. I wish Apple would do something about it. Don't think they will.

 

What about this?
http://www.jigsaw24.com/product-deta...erbolt-adapter
http://www.matrox.com/video/en/products/mxo2_mini_max/
ps.
this is meant to be for Imac2010-2011 which don't accept input as the 2009.