Mac – Can a Thunderbolt-equipped iMac be used as an external display for a DisplayPort-equipped PC

displayportimacthunderbolt

I have a mid-2011 21.5" iMac with a Thunderbolt port. Can I use this port to have the iMac act as a external monitor for my Windows 7 laptop that has a DisplayPort video output?

The MacOS Help Center topic "Use another Mac as a display" only describes the ability to use the iMac as an external display for another Mac and doesn't say if it would work for a Windows PC:

If you have an iMac with Thunderbolt, any other Mac with Thunderbolt
can use it as a display.

Also, the Apple support site states the following:

iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011) and iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011) support Target
Display Mode via Thunderbolt to Thunderbolt cable (2 m) when the
source is another Thunderbolt-equipped computer.

Specifically the laptop is a Dell Latitude E6500, which is not a "Thunderbolt-equipped computer" — so I'm essentially looking to see if there is a known solution for converting the DisplayPort output of the laptop into an iMac-compatible Thunderbolt format.

Best Answer

From here, emphasis mine:

Products Affected iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011), iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011)

The iMac (Mid 2011) has Thunderbolt ports that support:

  • [...]
  • The Thunderbolt port does not accept input for Target Display Mode via a Mini DisplayPort cable.

From here:

If you have an iMac with Thunderbolt, any other Mac with Thunderbolt can use it as a display. The iMac will play both the video and audio from the other Mac.

If you have a 27-inch iMac with a Mini DisplayPort, any other Mac with a Mini DisplayPort or Thunderbolt port can use it as a display. Make sure you have a Mini DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort cable.

Since you have a Thunderbolt Mac, you cannot use it as a display for DisplayPort output.

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