iMac 27" like monitor for Pc

Wow, thats a MAJOR setback. Ok, Imac is no longer for sale! thanks for that Mike. When you say VRAM thats just the GDDR ram on the card yes?

God. looks like i will be selling my 280 then. lol

Technically speaking on the cheapest end of the scale just to get a PC on to the imac screen, this would work? http://www.ebuyer.com/254969-gigabyte-hd-5450-512mb-ddr2-vga-dual-hdmi-displaypo rt-pci-e-graphics-card-gv-r545d2-512d

But in order to get gaming realistically within my budget something like this would have me playing games...

http://www.ebuyer.com/266532-sapphire-vapor-x-hd-6750-1gb-gddr5-oc-edition-dvi-h dmi-displayport-pci-e-11186-08-20g

That 512MB would really struggle as GPU especially at such a high res. the second card isn't much better to be frank. Unless you're willing to play all games in 720p as opposed to 2560x1440 even this card wouldn't do. You're really looking for a 1.3GB card worth above £150 if you want to game. I used 1xGTX570 initially and that could play most games on max at full resolution which is a pretty impressive feat.

Mike

Thanks mike, since the last post i upped my budget to 130. my problem is that none of the cards are better than the GTX 280 theoretically. It just means that i am going to be forced to use the old 22 inch monitor with the GTX.

I do however have one last question. you seem to know your stuff so how about this. If i want to use 3 monitors, The mac in the middle 2 22inch ones in portrait mode either side, playing games like BF3 / COD MW3 and FSX is it possible to do it on 1 graphics card? 2 DVI and one display port? a card for exaple this one...http://www.ebuyer.com/248745-powercolor-hd-6870-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-dual-min i-displayport-pci-e-ax6870-1gbd5-2dh#reviews

has enough connectors.

I think i may need to delay the purchase of all these parts for a few months as these larger cards require larger PSUs than the one i currently have.

If you want to have a triple-moniter setup, you're going to have to up your budget. If I'm not mistaken only the newer cards from nVidia and ATi have triple-moniter support. I think the technology is called eyefinity for ATi or something but don't know what the technology is called in nVidia cards. You'll have to research this. However, one thing is for sure, if you want 3 displays all of which are very high res (I'd imagine the two displays you're getting are 1080p), then you're going to have to dish out £400+. For nVidia cards, if memory serves, you must have two cards (SLI) to enable this technology and thus, since you require high end cards, you're looking in the region of £500+. You only need ONE new ATi card to do this, but it would have to be very powerful if you wanted good performance. Somewhere in the region of £400+ and even that's pushing it. If I were you, I would research this as it looks like you're trying to build something pretty impressive and if you want top quality performance you're going to have to dish out.

EDIT:

This article is interesting and clears lots up:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/triple-monitor-gaming-on-geforce-gtx-590-and-radeo n-6990/

Can I point out that this guy has purchased 4x 600EUR GPUs..... It's a little excessive but you see the issue.

I so want this to be possible on my 2007 iMac 24" display! I asked both the Apple care people as well as went into an Apple store and was told this would difinitively NOT work. I have an iMac7,1 Intel Core 2 Duo running at 2.4Ghz - is there anyone who can confirm that the cable listed below will in fact work? Are there limitations to what kind of PC or card that is needed? I wonder why Apple can not provide difinitive information?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Scott

I would like to build a gaming pc with the new Ati Radeon HD 7970 (3 gigs of ram), so I should have no problems at all. In any case, on Windows-side, can you adjoust the resolution of the iMac screen (for example, 1980x1020) or you are "limited" to the native resolution (2560x1440)? Another question: does the minidisplayport drive only the graphics or the sounds too? Thank you in advance!

sd_fuller - All your quesitons can be answered by reading this thread.

Brekzarith - Using your iMac as a display is exactly the same as using a normal display, all functions are the same. So yes, you can change the res.

MDP/DP is picture only. No sound.

I have an i5 27" imac at home, and a HP Elitbook laptop from work. I got a mini displayport to displayport adapter cable from my local computer store it is not the same brand as yours. Is it because the cable is made differently from circitassembly.com or is it the laptop that has to be within certain spec? because I can't get it to work. I really want to hook up my work laptop onto my imac so i don't have to go and buy another screeen.

Hey,

i just found out that in the new IMAC's they have only inputs and no outputs...

so u can connect 2 more screens but you can't connect another computer.

im looking for a good selution

the only thing i found by now is a usb to hdmi/dvi/vga

like a video card that connects with usb.

if someone got a better way to fix this problem i will happy to hear

I have iMac "27 mid 2010. I bought mini dp to dp cable. My PC has sapphire 6670 vapor-x video card.

Ive plugged everything in, but when I hit cmd+f2, my screen goes black for a moment, then it gives me that windows like blue color, and finally, it just returns me to MacOS.

Win7 simply wont display at all. What can be the problem ?

How can I solve this?

Plz anyone, if you can help, it really would be appreciated.

Ok... I have tried literally everything in the last couple of days, except trying another windows version (using win7 atm). I really dont want to reinstall everything and fail connecting iMac again.

When i press cmd+f2, screen goes black for a while, Catalyst Control Center recognises iMac as an unknown display, but then it simply dissapears as "unknown display", and my iMac goes from black screen to MacOS.

Bahh... Im gonna give up on this and simply sell my iMac. Wasted a lot of money on video card for my pc, and still this doesnt work. iMac was a gift, so money will come in handy after the sale. This simply doesnt work on my video card. Its a shame that "great" companies make us spend loads of money to get simple things, and sometimes they dont seem to work. Shame on them 😟

I'm having similar problems, but you're getting further than I am. I'm trying to connect at 2009 iMac and a Dell E6400 running WinXP (yes, XP... please don't laugh at my employer 🙂) But whenever I connect them, they don't seem to "see" each other, I can't even get the iMac to do anything when I press cmd-F2... nada.

Do I maybe have a bad cable? I've tried rebooting, unplugging and replugging, etc, to no effect. Is there a step I'm missing here? Some on/off toggle on the Mac or Dell I need to set up?

Any help would be appreciated.

Hello Everyone,

It seems like I am also getting problems connecting my PC with iMac 27'' (built in 16 October 2011). Just to get iMac as an external display for PC I bought AMD Radeon™ HD 6870 card as it has native mini Display Port output.

I also bought mini Display Port to mini Display Port cabel here: http://www.steg-electronics.ch/fr/article/roline-mini-dp-kabel-3m-157358.aspx and still this does not work. According to manufacture:

Kompatibel zur THUNDERBOLT - Schnittstelle:

Die neue THUNDERBOLT - Schnittstelle (Codename: "Light Peak") ist ein universeller Anschluss für große Datenmengen mit zwei bidirektionalen Kanälen für Transferraten von 10 GBit/s.

Mechanisch und elektrisch ist Thunderbolt rückwärts-kompatibel mit dem DisplayPort und den Mini-DisplayPort-Steckern

Which basically says that it is compatible with Thunderbolt protocol. However, I have to say, that I tried to hook up iMac when booting the PC. Perhaps, I should have triggered something in ATI Catalyst program?

Or it should work just out of the box? (I.e., can I setup my PC BIOS using iMac display?)

Guys, please read previous posts before posting your problems.

Volody, this feature only works with PCs on the 2009 and mid 2010 iMacs. Sorry.

hColl, you need to do more research into why it isn't working. Is you're iMac not a 2009/2010 model etc. etc.

Hello Mackey,

Thanks for the reply. Actually, I read the whole thread. It's just the whole topic seems very confusing. According to

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3189887?start=0&tstart=0

one may connect Thunderbolt Monitor with mini display port graphical card. See one of the comments:

Thunderbold ports are divided into 2 pipelines, one for data and the other for video. Going from the quote it should work with the video pipeline with no issues, but with no support for any of the external inputs (FW800, USB, Ethernet port).