[SOLVED] ASUS X99-DELUXE II with 2011 iMac Thunderbolt Target Display Mode

Jefe533 · Oct 5, 2016

Hi all,

I just built a new PC and am trying to use my old 2011 27" iMac as its primary display.

PC:
ASUS X99-DELUXE II
ThunderboltEX 3
StarTech Thunderbolt 3 USB-C to Thunderbolt Adapter
i7-6850K CPU @ 3.60GHz
Titan X (Pascal)

iMac:
27" 2011 Model (iMac 12,2)>AMD Radeon HD 6970M
2560x1440

On my PC, I have connected the DisplayPort OUT of my Titan X to the MiniDisplayPort IN on the ThunderboltEX 3 card via the provided cable.

The USB-C Thunderbolt port on the ThunderboltEX3 card is attached to the StarTech adaptor, which converts the plug type to regular old Thunderbolt (i.e., MiniDisplayPort-shaped plug). The StarTech connects to an Apple-branded Thunderbolt cable which goes into the back of my iMac.

If you connect a Mac to an iMac (like my wife's MacBook Air), all you need to do to get the iMac to enter Target Display Mode is to hit Command+F2 on the iMac. But when I do so in my setup, nothing happens.

Apparently the iMac is expecting a Thunderbolt signal—not just MiniDisplay port video signal—but that should be OK because I am outputting from a Thunderbolt port on the PC...right?

I *think* my ThunderboltEX3 Card is configured correctly, because when I click on the Thunderbolt icon in the system tray in Windows, it says "Macintosh" under Port 1 or Thunderbolt Controller 1. So Windows sees that the Mac is connected via Thunderbolt.

Any ideas on why this might not be working?

My Bios is 1003 on the 9/13/2016 build. I'm using the latest 2016/05/16 drivers for the Thunderbolt Card (15.3.39.250).

It would be amazing to be able to use my iMac as my Thunderbolt monitor so I don't have to buy a new one....

Oh and the ThunderboltEX3 card is in PCIE X16_5...the bottom slot. I've used other Thunderbolt devices with this configuration properly, such as a Blackmagic UltraStudio video out adapter for post production.

Any and all ideas would be greatly appreciated!

HowdyD · Oct 7, 2016

Jefe533 :

Hi all,

I just built a new PC and am trying to use my old 2011 27" iMac as its primary display.

PC:
ASUS X99-DELUXE II
ThunderboltEX 3
StarTech Thunderbolt 3 USB-C to Thunderbolt Adapter
i7-6850K CPU @ 3.60GHz
Titan X (Pascal)

iMac:
27" 2011 Model (iMac 12,2)>AMD Radeon HD 6970M
2560x1440

On my PC, I have connected the DisplayPort OUT of my Titan X to the MiniDisplayPort IN on the ThunderboltEX 3 card via the provided cable.

The USB-C Thunderbolt port on the ThunderboltEX3 card is attached to the StarTech adaptor, which converts the plug type to regular old Thunderbolt (i.e., MiniDisplayPort-shaped plug). The StarTech connects to an Apple-branded Thunderbolt cable which goes into the back of my iMac.

If you connect a Mac to an iMac (like my wife's MacBook Air), all you need to do to get the iMac to enter Target Display Mode is to hit Command+F2 on the iMac. But when I do so in my setup, nothing happens.

Apparently the iMac is expecting a Thunderbolt signal—not just MiniDisplay port video signal—but that should be OK because I am outputting from a Thunderbolt port on the PC...right?

I *think* my ThunderboltEX3 Card is configured correctly, because when I click on the Thunderbolt icon in the system tray in Windows, it says "Macintosh" under Port 1 or Thunderbolt Controller 1. So Windows sees that the Mac is connected via Thunderbolt.

Any ideas on why this might not be working?

My Bios is 1003 on the 9/13/2016 build. I'm using the latest 2016/05/16 drivers for the Thunderbolt Card (15.3.39.250).

It would be amazing to be able to use my iMac as my Thunderbolt monitor so I don't have to buy a new one....

Oh and the ThunderboltEX3 card is in PCIE X16_5...the bottom slot. I've used other Thunderbolt devices with this configuration properly, such as a Blackmagic UltraStudio video out adapter for post production.

Any and all ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Any luck getting this to work? I'm attempting to do the same with a ASRock card.

Jefe533 · Oct 7, 2016

No luck...actually I'm starting to give up. I think the cold reality is that some kind of Mac-to-Mac hardware handshake has to happen for Target Display Mode to activate. There's gotta be a way to hack or fake this, but that's out of my league. What I'm working on now is a virtualization solution. If I start my iMac in Bootcamp to Windows 10...and my PC is of course in Windows 10, I can control the PC on my iMac monitor full screen, full resolution, via Window's built-in remote access. It won't work for games, but it's fine for what I do...video color correction. I have it running reasonably fast over my wired home network, but what I'm trying to do now is to get a direct Thunderbolt bridge network between the iMac and the PC. Ironically, I can make this work if the iMac is in OS X. I can connect to the PC via Thunderbolt, mount its drives, etc., with insane bandwidth. But I can't share the PC's screen while I'm in OS X. I need to switch over to Bootcamp on the iMac, where Thunderbolt networking doesn't work...

Jefe533 · Oct 7, 2016

OK, so this is not a long term solution, but:

I've configured my PC for remote access. Downloaded "Microsoft Remote Access Beta"—for Mac. Connected my PC's USB-C type Thunderbolt 3 port to my iMac's first-gen Thunderbolt port. Restart my PC.

Now I see by looking at the blue Thunderbolt icon in my PC's system tray that it is connected to "Macintosh." The Mac sees the PC under "System Pref / Network / Thunderbolt Bridge." It says the bridge status is active.

Back on the PC, if you go into the Network and sharing center, you can an "Unidentified Network." Says "Ethernet 3" even though I have no third ethernet port. It's the Thunderbolt. When you click on Ethernet 3, you see the connection is 10 Gbps...a lot better than the 1 Gbps of my regular ethernet wired network. Clicking on details reveals the PC's IP address on the Thunderbolt Bridge. Under Autoconfiguration IPv4.

Flip back to the iMac, and I enter that IP address in the Microsoft Remote Access Beta first and only prompt. Voila! You've got the PC on the iMac screen and full rez, running great. I even played a video and it was close to buttery smooth. Nothing like a TeamViewer or traditional VNC remote desktop situation.

For gaming...I tried Steam In Home Streaming. Again, flawless way to get the PC's image on your iMac monitor. It's crazy how smooth it is.

At the end of the day I will be getting a new monitor, but for now, these are good solutions to hold me off for a month or so while I do my monitor research...

TDS007 · Dec 5, 2016

Could you please share your bios settings for your thunderbolt adapter? I am trying to connect my asus thunderbolt EX3 card to an imac (late 2013) but starting to loose hope. I couldnt find any detailed description about the exact settings and setup. Any info would be great! thanks!

Jefe533 :

OK, so this is not a long term solution, but:

I've configured my PC for remote access. Downloaded "Microsoft Remote Access Beta"—for Mac. Connected my PC's USB-C type Thunderbolt 3 port to my iMac's first-gen Thunderbolt port. Restart my PC.

Now I see by looking at the blue Thunderbolt icon in my PC's system tray that it is connected to "Macintosh." The Mac sees the PC under "System Pref / Network / Thunderbolt Bridge." It says the bridge status is active.

Back on the PC, if you go into the Network and sharing center, you can an "Unidentified Network." Says "Ethernet 3" even though I have no third ethernet port. It's the Thunderbolt. When you click on Ethernet 3, you see the connection is 10 Gbps...a lot better than the 1 Gbps of my regular ethernet wired network. Clicking on details reveals the PC's IP address on the Thunderbolt Bridge. Under Autoconfiguration IPv4.

Flip back to the iMac, and I enter that IP address in the Microsoft Remote Access Beta first and only prompt. Voila! You've got the PC on the iMac screen and full rez, running great. I even played a video and it was close to buttery smooth. Nothing like a TeamViewer or traditional VNC remote desktop situation.

For gaming...I tried Steam In Home Streaming. Again, flawless way to get the PC's image on your iMac monitor. It's crazy how smooth it is.

At the end of the day I will be getting a new monitor, but for now, these are good solutions to hold me off for a month or so while I do my monitor research...

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[SOLVED] ASUS X99-DELUXE II with 2011 iMac Thunderbolt Target Display Mode

Jefe533

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HowdyD

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Jefe533

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TDS007

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