Dual display set up

What year model is the new iMac?

It won't work if you have a 2020 iMac because 2020 iMac can not use the 2011 iMac as a display.

please carefully read > https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204592

Sure, antony1963, i think i can help you. The more recent imac uses usb-c and thunderbolt 3 , and the 2011 imac uses Thunderbolt 2. Both of ‘em will do mini displayport, displayport or hdmi with an adapter cable. Target display mode used to work to allow you to do that, but it has been removed and replaced with Airplay… in the most recent imac.your 2011 imac does support it thru using a thunderbolt 3 to thunderbolt 2 adapter.. here’s how to try to do that. Please note -it doesn’t work with Mojave or later.. you might want to check out this link…

https://astropad.com/product/lunadisplay/

you may also be able to network them via Thunderbolt and the aforementioned adapter.

If your iMac is on the list then you can use Target Display Mode, if not then you need to network it.

• Use Thunderbolt to network the iMac and MacBook.
• Assign an IP statically to both endpoints
• Run Mac’s sharing over this interface (Thunderbolt 2 runs at 20Gbps instead of your typical 1G network interface so its much faster, if you use Thunderbolt 3 at both ends then its faster still).

john b

Big Sur dropped support for using older iMacs in Target Display Mode as second displays.

If you want to use dual displays with a new iMac you will need to purchase a standard desktop monitor and connect to that.