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I have an iMac 27" with two thunderbolt ports, and a PC with DisplayPort output. In order to use the iMac as a monitor, it appears that a thunderbolt display output at the source is required (https://www.tekrevue.com/tip/ins-outs-imacs-target-display-mode/), and using a DP-mDP cable did not work (Target DisplayMode on the mac using cmd-F2 doesn't respond).

The question is, is there anything I can do on the PC side (a new graphics card, perhaps? or some sort of a converter) to make this happen?

curious
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1 Answers1

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There's nothing you can do on the PC side.

In order to use the iMac as a monitor, it appears that a thunderbolt display output at the source is required

This is a misunderstanding of how this works. There's no such thing as "thunderbolt display output." Thunderbolt is a multiplexing of a number of signals:

  • PCIe
  • USB
  • DisplayPort
  • Power (Thunderbolt 3)

If it was just the "display" portion of Thunderbolt, it would work with your mDP to mDP cable. You need Thunderbolt connections end-to-end.

Allan
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  • Thank you for that clarification. If I'm not mistaken, the iMac 2013 model doesn't have TB3. Would it be possible to use a Thunderbolt add-in card at the PC side (such as https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GC-Thunderbolt-2-rev-10#ov) to achieve this connection? – curious Dec 08 '17 at 14:53
  • You don't need TB3. Power is included in TB3 only - it's not relevant to using the iMac as a Target Display. What you need is a Thunderbolt connection and a Thunderbolt cable. I've never seen this done from PC to iMac. – Allan Dec 08 '17 at 15:00