I'm sorry, you probably get a lot of questions similar to this, but how do I use my 09 27" iMac as an external 1440p monitor for a PC in TDM?

Hello all,

Firstly, let me apologise. You probably see a lot of these questions. However, I've had a look through and I haven't been able to find a solution to my problem.

I have an '09 27" iMac which I use for the creative side of my life. (I'm training to be an architect.) However I'm also really into gaming, and so I've just bought a brand new PC. The GPU is a GeForce GTX 780 Ti with two DVI, an HDMI and a DisplayPort output. My iMac has a Mini DisplayPort jack.

I'm basically wondering if there's any way of using the iMac as a 1440p monitor for this new PC. I tried connecting the PC to the iMac with an HDMI cable using an HDMI to MDP adapter and hitting cmd+f2 on the iMac to initiate Target Display Mode, but that hasn't worked. I'm now thinking of buying an HDMI to MDP direct cable to see if that works but I'm also wondering if a DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort cable might work too? I was under the impression that the 780 Ti had a MDP output but the version of mine only has the outputs listed above.

Is any of this even possible? I've heard reports in the past of people having success with MDP to MDP from PC to iMac but of course I can't do that. Am I wasting my time and money here?

At present I'm using my 37" HDTV as a monitor on my desk but as you can imagine, it's far too big to use in the long run! It's annoying because the 780 Ti is capable of running max settings easiliy in 1440p and having to downgrade from the iMac to a 1080p HDTV is disheartening.

Any help would be very greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Westy