Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Thunderbolt display with PC

W

Wat3v4

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 5, 2014
15
0
I currently have a thunderbolt display working with a macbook pro.
Everything was fine to the point elder scrolls online came out and the non-retina macbook pro Mid 2012, 2.6GHz i7, 16GB with an SSD couldn't run the game properly.. only worked on half low and medium graphics..
All this got me really upset and I've decided to costume build a gaming pc.. with a budget around 2500-3000$.
My question is, should i get a different display or can my thunderbolt be able to run the PC? i don't really care about ports behind the screen just as long as it works on the monitor's full potential..

How can i get it all work?

Thanks a lot :)
 
What do you mean display port?
the thunderbolt display has a thunderbolt connection, and my future comp is not ready yet so it doesn't have anything yet..
 
The responder is saying that the thunderbolt port on the Mac can also functions as a "plain" displayport input with a mini displayport connector.

So if you buy a video card with display port out, a simple displayport to mini displayport cable will work.
 
John Kotches said:
The responder is saying that the thunderbolt port on the Mac can also functions as a "plain" displayport input with a mini displayport connector.

So if you buy a video card with display port out, a simple displayport to mini displayport cable will work.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately that is false. The TB Cinema displays will not work with PC cards with DP/mDP. Only 27" ACD that works with PC cards is the previous non-TB version.
 
The thunderbolt display will only work with a thunderbolt cable, so to use it with a gaming pc, you will need a graphic card with a thunderbolt port, displayport or mini displayport or any adapter will not work.

I can't name any as I don't own a PC but I am sure there are good graphic card out there that will fill your needs
 
Will an Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter work in this case?

plug the thunderbolt display cable to an adapter to HDMI of the GPU of the PC
 
What will it lake? I've read that the ports on its back will not work..
but will it effect on its performance? i don't really care about the ports..
 
It will only work on a thunderbolt connection - NOT any form of display port/hdmi/dvi. Your motherboard physically needs a thunderbolt port.

If you're PC motherboard doesn't have a thunderbolt port, and you want to use your ATD, then you need to buy a new motherboard with TB support.
 
Wat3v4 said:
What will it lake? I've read that the ports on its back will not work..
but will it effect on its performance? i don't really care about the ports..
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I understand, you mean the port in the back of your display? If so, it will take a pc with a graphic card with thunderbolt output. Nothing else will.

I had to buy a display and when I understood this issue, instead of a thunderbolt display I bought a dell and it does everything I need and when I will buy a pc, it will work with both my macs ( yes with an s as in multiple inputs in the display) and my pc.

So, either you buy a compatible pc or you buy a compatible display.
 
so stupid.. so there is no solution for gaming in highest performance on a mac? just buy a pc? how come they never made an external GPU for macbook pro..
 
Wat3v4 said:
so stupid.. so there is no solution for gaming in highest performance on a mac? just buy a pc? how come they never made an external GPU for macbook pro..
Click to expand...

With the thunderbolt 2.0 it might come to work but right now it won't (external graphic card). I'm not what you might call a real gamer, I do some casual gaming so my mac does the job, but I know a lot of "real gamers" and none of them are on mac precisely because of the graphic card.

You talked about what, 3K budget ? Would a base Mac Pro fill your gaming needs?

----------

Wait, are you playing on your MBA?
 
Ive looked into mac pro.. but it seems in videos on youtube comparing a gaming pc and a mac pro for gaming, at the same budget and components, the mac pro for some reason loses :\

Playing on my macbook pro
 
John Kotches said:
My apologies. I go from t-bolt to displayport passively (i.e. just a cable) from a Mac Mini to a Dell display. That the reverse cannot be done is surprising.
Click to expand...

Well, it would need some processing to be done and right now nothing does it. But I used to have an active adaptor that could convert an hdmi feed to mini display port and it lagged light hell, so if it existed, I would not buy it

----------
Wat3v4 said:
Ive looked into mac pro.. but it seems in videos on youtube comparing a gaming pc and a mac pro for gaming, at the same budget and components, the mac pro for some reason loses :\

Playing on my macbook pro
Click to expand...

Do you need that much?
 
Are you playing ESO in Mac or Windows? You will most definitely get higher frame rates if you play under Windows in Bootcamp.

With a $2-3k budget you can build one hell of a gaming rig, so don't limit yourself to just a Thunderbolt display. If you really want to use a Apple 27" you can always try to find yourself a used 27" ACD (pre-TB).
 
IlikeMacsSoMuch said:
Well, it would need some processing to be done and right now nothing does it. But I used to have an active adaptor that could convert an hdmi feed to mini display port and it lagged light hell, so if it existed, I would not buy it

----------



Do you need that much?
Click to expand...

Not sure it depends on its performances in total..


fr4c said:
Are you playing ESO in Mac or Windows? You will most definitely get higher frame rates if you play under Windows in Bootcamp.

With a $2-3k budget you can build one hell of a gaming rig, so don't limit yourself to just a Thunderbolt display. If you really want to use a Apple 27" you can always try to find yourself a used 27" ACD (pre-TB).
Click to expand...

Thats actually a good idea, but since the beta was only 3 days it took forever to download the game so i only managed to try on mac without bootcamp on windows.. so ill definitely try that..
where i come from Israel/ukraine(i travel between the two) a used ACD or any electrons in that matter cost almost the same as a new one.. so I'm limited there.. but i also don't have as much desk space for another display other then my thunderbolt one..
 
Wat3v4 said:
Not sure it depends on its performances in total..




Thats actually a good idea, but since the beta was only 3 days it took forever to download the game so i only managed to try on mac without bootcamp on windows.. so ill definitely try that..
where i come from Israel/ukraine(i travel between the two) a used ACD or any electrons in that matter cost almost the same as a new one.. so I'm limited there.. but i also don't have as much desk space for another display other then my thunderbolt one..
Click to expand...

well that is something worth looking into. What is the game and what are the system requirements?
 
Wat3v4 said:
http://elderscrollsonline.info/system-requirements
according to its requirements the game should have worked fine.. don't know what was wrong..
i guess i should really try the windows bootcamp option.. hope it goes better
Click to expand...

Did you try the osx version if there is any? If there is not then a virtual machine will not suffice, you need to use bootcamp. I play crysis on my macbook pro via boot camp and it flies! An OSX version might work better but you should be more then fine with that game
 
Last edited:
fr4c said:
Try it under Windows first before you drop money into a new computer. I'm assuming your Mid 2012 MBP comes with a NVIDIA 650M with 1GB mem correct?
Click to expand...
Yeah and its fully upgraded with 16GB RAM and Samsung 840 SSD
So it should have worked much better..

IlikeMacsSoMuch said:
Did you try the osx version if there is any? If there is not then a virtual machine will not suffice, you need to use bootcamp. I play crysis on my macbook pro via boot camp and it flies! An OSX version might work better but you should be more then fine with that game
Click to expand...
Yeah there is an OSX version but it didn't work as well as i wished..
 
TL;DR.

Thunderbolt displays (TBD) will need to be attached to a Thunderbolt (TB) port. While physically compatible, hooking into a mini DisplayPort (mDP) connection will not work.

(Think a tumbler lock as an analogy. Of two keys, only one will work because the key was cut for that lock. The other key fits, but otherwise won't work)

For a TBD to work on a PC, you require a motherboard with TB port and a CPU that at least has Intel HD4000 graphics built into the CPU.

For a TBD to work on PC AND utilitise a discrete GPU, you require a motherboard with TB port and a CPU that at least has Intel HD4000 graphics built into the CPU, and support for Virtu MVP. Discrete GPU will generate the graphics; pipe over PCI bus to CPU; CPU pipes to TB port then spits it out to TBD.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back