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

use iMac 27" as PC Monitor

V

vile

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 14, 2010
53
0
Hi,
I've googled for quite some time but couldn't really find an answer to this question all information seemed to refer using an imac as a mbp etc. monitor. Now my situation:
I have an iMac 27" and a mbp but I also got a quite good acer pc catching dust under my desk. Now the thing is I would love to use my iMac as an monitor for that acer pc.

Is this possible (With special hardware, software etc.)?
 
The adapter seems to fit on my machine but that begs the question if I would rather spend that money to get another monitor for my pc. Thanks for the answer I'll check it out.
 
Or you could get a new graphics card for your PC that has a DisplayPort or Mini DisplayPort port on (You'd need to get a DisplayPort -> Mini DisplayPort adapter for the prior but they're cheap). Off the top of my head I think that Radeon 5450s can be had for under $50 if you want a cheap way to connect your old PC and don't care about graphics performance. If you want to use the PC for gaming then you'd be beter off buying a Radeon 6850 from somewhere like Newegg, a DP->MDP cable from [http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10246&cs_id=1024606&p_id=6006&seq=1&format=2]Monoprice[/url] rather than a dedicated dual-dvi to display port adapter. For what it's worth, a PC Radeon 6850 is more powerful than the graphics chip in the top end iMac.
 
Spanky Deluxe said:
Or you could get a new graphics card for your PC that has a DisplayPort or Mini DisplayPort port on (You'd need to get a DisplayPort -> Mini DisplayPort adapter for the prior but they're cheap). Off the top of my head I think that Radeon 5450s can be had for under $50 if you want a cheap way to connect your old PC and don't care about graphics performance. If you want to use the PC for gaming then you'd be beter off buying a Radeon 6850 from somewhere like Newegg, a DP->MDP cable from [http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10246&cs_id=1024606&p_id=6006&seq=1&format=2]Monoprice[/url] rather than a dedicated dual-dvi to display port adapter. For what it's worth, a PC Radeon 6850 is more powerful than the graphics chip in the top end iMac.
Click to expand...

IIRC only 5970 can be used with iMac from 5xxx series. All 4xxx should work and so do all NVidia cards. Not sure about new 6000-series.

That's what I've heard for several times. No idea why is it like that. I don't know is it true or not but at least make sure you can return/exchange the GPU
 
Hellhammer said:
IIRC only 5970 can be used with iMac from 5xxx series. All 4xxx should work and so do all NVidia cards. Not sure about new 6000-series.

That's what I've heard for several times. No idea why is it like that. I don't know is it true or not but at least make sure you can return/exchange the GPU
Click to expand...

You're partially correct, Hellhammer. The 5970 works fine, as well as any other Eyefinity edition card with mini-displayport connectivity. I can speak from experience, as I currently have a PC with a 5770 Eyefinity 5 GPU hooked up to my 27" iMac.

There's a long thread on the official AMD support forums regarding the issue of displayport -> mini-displayport on most 5XXX series Radeons and how they don't work with 27" iMacs or Apple Cinema Displays (24" and 27").
 
Ptyger said:
You're partially correct, Hellhammer. The 5970 works fine, as well as any other Eyefinity edition card with mini-displayport connectivity. I can speak from experience, as I currently have a PC with a 5770 Eyefinity 5 GPU hooked up to my 27" iMac.

There's a long thread on the official AMD support forums regarding the issue of displayport -> mini-displayport on most 5XXX series Radeons and how they don't work with 27" iMacs or Apple Cinema Displays (24" and 27").
Click to expand...

Thanks for the clarification! I recalled there are some issues but next time I can be more specific, thanks to your explanation. So all Eyefinity cards work but normal cards with (m)DP won't work, right?
 
I am in the same boat

Jumped from PC to Mac... bought a brand new iMac 27".

I have a very decent PC desktop... i would like to find a reasonable graphic card that has DisplayPort.

I don't want to keep two monitors on my small desk.

But, I can't seem to find any graphic cards that have DisplayPort under $170.

Any suggestions?
 
Thanks.

I just don't want to throw away my PC...using that as backup machine, etc.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3GS: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; fi-fi) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

You need eyefinity version of 5xxx, normal wont work. Smth like gt 230 or 430 is what u need, ill link you when im at home

GeForce 210 (the cheapest)
ATI 4350 (ATI alternative)
GeForce GT 430 (costs little more but is the best one)
 
Last edited:
Hellhammer said:
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3GS: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; fi-fi) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

You need eyefinity version of 5xxx, normal wont work. Smth like gt 230 or 430 is what u need, ill link you when im at home

GeForce 210 (the cheapest)
ATI 4350 (ATI alternative)
GeForce GT 430 (costs little more but is the best one)
Click to expand...

That's absolutely wonderful!!!!

Thank you!!!!
 
Just ordered a graphic card with displayport.

Question:
When i connect displayport from PC to my new iMac 27, would it also carry the audio and the iMac speaker output audio?
 
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