Can I use a Mid 2011 27 inch iMac (Thunderbolt) as a display for a PC? There are other questions on here that are similar, but I believe they relate to older models. If this is a dupe please close it though - I just want to find out if this can be done.



I bought a 27 inch iMac (iMac12,2). The back port cluster looks like this (on the right):


*from apple.com

I wonder if I can use those Thunderbolt ports as inputs from a PC? The PC will be running a Radeon HD 4850 (i.e. it has enough juice to power the display).

Can it be done?
No - currently, only computers with a ThunderBolt port (combined DisplayPort + PCIe data) will work for video in mirroring on an iMac. This means a small selection of other Macs that ship with thunderbolt currently work.

There could be adapters later that help, and perhaps a firmware update, but even a MacBook Air that you buy today with DisplayPort out won't work with the iMacs expecting thunderbolt in.