Connect MacBook Pro 2016 and PC to one display | As minimal looking as possible

[marcelbehnke]

Hey there,

I have a comfort problem to solve, but first let me give you some background-details:

I’m going to get the new MacBook Pro (15 inch model) as payment by a client around christmas. At the moment I’m working with the first Retina MacBook Pro from mid 2012, but I build a gaming PC a while ago. For this I bought the Acer X34A with a resolution of 3440x1440px, G-Sync, DisplayPort and HDMI input. Because it’s purpose the gaming-PC needs to be connected via Displayport for the G-Sync (GTX 1070).

For the moment I just connected the MacBook twice via HDMI, but it showed the image in 16:9 with black bars on both sidesAs long as I was working it was ok, but of course I want to use the full 21:9 ratio. Since I’m going to replace my MacBook I didn’t look much further how to solve all this. I also know that the 4K-capabilities with this MacBook are pretty limited so I thought that the grpahicscard could play a role in this behavior, also the ceonnection via HDMI could be a reason for it. Now that I get closer to receive the MacBook I already want to think about how I can build my setup as minimal as possible. I really like my workspace pretty clean, without a lot of cables.


So here is my plan setup (should also be attached to this post):
http://imgur.com/a/oTxi4


I'm not too much into all these adapter thing etc, so I just wanted to ask if this should work the way I want it to be or if there are any concerns I have to look at. Maybe there are already some experiences on something like this...

Would be nice if anyone could help me

Thank you everyone!

Cheers

 

[dyn]

Looks good to me. With the HDMI 1.4 limiting 4k at 30Hz I'd say you don't have any other choice than to connect it the way you drew it. You don't have to use the multiport adapter from Apple, you can get USB-C to HDMI and USB-C to USB-A cables (or buy a very cheap USB-A to C adapter). Should save you some money. The only downside is having to connect 2 connectors instead of 1. Also, HDMI 1.4 can only drive that 4k panel at 30Hz.
As for the USB switch, just make sure it actually works with PC and Mac and the way you intended.

Other then that, the only thing to remember is that you have to switch the output on both the USB switch as well as the display.