So, no way for 5k to be target

[hazeydavey]

So there are no hacks at all? I don't know how I missed this. I work from home all the time and have to use my work mac, no way around security stuff without logging in with this.

I've looked and looked, and there is zero way my beautiful 27" iMac can be my main monitor off my macbook?

 

[redheeler]

Yes, still not possible. The closest you can do would be Screen Sharing over Thunderbolt Bridge.

 

[maflynn]

I've looked and looked, and there is zero way my beautiful 27" iMac can be my main monitor off my macbook?

Nope, as far as I'm aware.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

On one of these threads there is a way to do it with an adapter that someone found but I can't remember which thread.

 

[Coldmode]

I've looked and looked, and there is zero way my beautiful 27" iMac can be my main monitor off my macbook?

The MacBook can't drive the monitor over a Thunderbolt 2 cable. If next year's MacBooks and iMacs have Thunderbolt 3, then it might be a possibility if you have all new hardware.

 

[makrom]

There are several ways how it can be done. Video capturing is commonly used. But obviously this isn't ideal if you want full resolution without any artefacts or input lag. Another way is desktop sharing. But any information that isn't transmitted geometrically but pixel based instead doesn't look that great.
I don't think there is a way if you want a fully progressive, uncompressed video signal.

 

[jerwin]

if you have all new hardware.

This is the important bit...

 

[maflynn]

If next year's MacBooks and iMacs have Thunderbolt 3, then it might be a possibility if you have all new hardware.

What confuses me, is it had it before didn't it, and only this latest iteration did that ability disappear.

 

[redheeler]

What confuses me, is it had it before didn't it, and only this latest iteration did that ability disappear.

The previous 27" iMacs with the lower-resolution 1440p displays can do Target Display Mode, yes. The functionality was lost starting with the first 5K model last year.

 

[maflynn]

The previous 27" iMacs with the lower-resolution 1440p displays can do Target Display Mode, yes. The functionality was lost starting with the first 5K model last year.

Ok, so no 5k iMac had that ability - I didn't know that.

 

[zhaoxin]

If you are using another Mac at work. You can use "target disk mode" through a thunderbolt connector. That will turn you Mac to a mobile disk and your iMac 5K will start from that disk.

The difference is the cpu and memory resource are all from iMac 5K. For now I think it is even better than using iMac only as a monitor. Because iMac 5K is faster than any Macbook at the moment. However, for the future, maybe you Macbook becomes faster than you iMac. But now, it worth trying for.