27" iMac displayport Input

hornkiku23 said:
The 5970 has a mini displayport out not a regular displayport. What do you think of that circular?
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That's interesting. Are there even any mini DisplayPort equipped monitors currently on the PC market? I only know of Apple ones (24" ACD, 27" iMac, and those CinemaView Apple clones).

If not, it would be pretty pathetic of ATI to release a card apparently catered towards Apple monitors but then have it be incompatible!

Although from looking at pics from a few 5970's, I think the choice of mDP over DP may be totally based on physical dimensions (they are squeezing a mDP output between two DVI outputs and they dropped the HDMI). So perhaps they are just expecting people to buy a mDP/DP cable (for full DP monitors) rather than hook these up to Apple mDP monitors.
 
Fast getting to the point of no return for me... Going to pick up an iMac sometime next week and I have to get rid of my current 25.5" monitor, cause there's no way both the iMac and my monitor will both fit on my desk. So I'll need some form of video from my PC to the iMac as external display.

Will probably try and pick up a 4890 used to tide me over til ATI gets its act together. Doh.
 
Still no pics from anyone ..... If it only works as a secondary display for other Macs, their sales numbers will GREATLY be diminished. That includes me. If I can buy one and hook it up to my mean i7 rig at home, you are going to see one of these in my house eventually. But if it won't work as a display for my main workstation computer, that's one iMac sale Apple won't get for sure. I know it's not huge to them in the long run, but what else do I have to vote with other than my wallet?

I know some of you are in the same boat as me, though. It's hard to look at an S-IPS and a TN side by side, and then go home and do your work or play on a TN. Maybe not at first, but it's one of those things that you just start wanting to upgrade ....
 
Here are a couple pics of my PC (running Win7 with a Radeon 4890) utilizing the 27" iMac as its primary display.

2uhprfc.jpg


osd8qg.jpg
 
thanks for the pics circularreference... now to save some $$$ for a 27" Imac..Hopefully more video cards will be supported by the display...Are you able to toggle between Win7 and OSX?
 
thanks man. looks great...can't wait for my turn! ordered Friday =)
 
You, sir, are the man. Have you tried this method with anything other than an ATI card, such as an nVidia card? Any weird glitches or things we should know about?
 
SirKronan said:
Have you tried this method with anything other than an ATI card, such as an nVidia card?
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No, the first card I tried was the 5770, which did NOT work and my second attempt (the 4890) DID work. From an earlier post it sounds like TheDanimal unsuccessfuly tried to get a Nvidia 9400GT to work and will be trying with a Radeon 3470 soon.


SirKronan said:
Any weird glitches or things we should know about?
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There are a couple of annoyances, but they're rather minor:

1) You have to use an Apple keyboard to switch inputs ... the USB keyboard I have (which is connected to a USB switch so I can share it and my mouse between the PC and the iMac) does not work. I have to keep the wireless Apple keyboard around solely for this purpose. I may just buy a USB Apple Keyboard to resolve this though.

2) When I first power on the PC, the iMac detects it and automatically switches, but since it takes a few seconds before the PC starts displaying the BIOS startup, the iMac gets impatient and switches back so I have to manually switch it back with Cmd+F2.

Other than that it works great. It has enabled me to ditch my DVI monitor and I now use the iMac as my sole display for my PC, saving a lot of desk space.
 
Just to confirm, all I'll need is a mini DP to DP cable to go with the 4890 right? Doesn't need an active converter or anything.
 
Display port and Mini display port are the exact same wiring, just a different size connector on each end.


MORE IMPORTANT!!!:

The ATI HD 3470 that I purchased DOES work with my iMac as a display!! Only took a couple minutes to setup, and it works great. I was/am actually running an Nvidia and an ATI card at the same time, because the ATI card i bought has diplayport outputs only. The best part? It was only $25!!!! Theres a bunch more on ebay, and can be found here: http://cgi.ebay.com/HP-Low-Profile-...emQQptZPCC_Video_TV_Cards?hash=item35a4686289

So if you are looking for a cheap solution to the iMac display problem, this is it!!!
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
circularreference said:
Yep, this is the one I bought:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ytecc_mini_displayport-_-12-270-262-_-Product

And this was the 4890 I bought:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...re_4890_displayport:_1-_-14-102-848-_-Product
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DO NOT SPEND THAT MUCH ON A CABLE!!!!
I have been using one of the ones form monoprice in a 10ft length, but they have a few lengths to choose from. Here:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10246&cs_id=1024606
 
Thanks for all the research guys.

The problem with all this is as far gaming on the imac 27 is if you have to use 4xxx series and below for it to work there is not much point because bootcamp can be run with the same or similar speeds.



Such a disappointment........
 
hornkiku23 said:
The problem with all this is as far gaming on the imac 27 is if you have to use 4xxx series and below for it to work there is not much point because bootcamp can be run with the same or similar speeds.
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It still makes sense if you already have a powerful PC and want to buy the cheaper 27" iMac (w/ the Core 2 Duo and 4670).

In my case I had a Core i7-975 w/ 6GB RAM that was in need of a video card upgrade anyway. Spending $170 on a 4890 for the PC made a lot more sense than spending an extra $500+ for the top end iMac with a less powerful 4850, less RAM, and a slower CPU ( especially since the Core i7 iMac wasn't available at the time I bought mine).

But yes, it would be much better if the 5000 series just worked with the iMac.
 
I have bought the i5 model. My reasoning was that the benefit to resale value and overall longevity was well worth the $300 premium. However adding another $200 for the i7 seemed unnecessary for me, like yourself another i7 Windows owner. Now, just waiting for a 5xxx series solution that works well with this fantastic display....
 
As an aside I very much enjoy this screen. It's bright, contrasty, colorful and my initial impressions (calibration tomorrow...) are that the gamut is average but out-of-box calibration is very accurate. I do notice a high pitch whine when the brightness setting is just one click short of maximum. At maximum, there is no whine, and it disappears around 50% brightness.

Very noticeable in a quiet room but I either run the display at 50% or 100% so it has not been an issue.
 
isp said:
Exactly what I did as well...btw did you get the mail in rebate for that sapphire card? What will you be doing with the cheap system in the iMac? :D can it even play 1080p HD video with that mobile gpu?
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Yeah that rebate helped make the card a little cheaper. Of course they scam you out of $2 if you want your rebate sooner than 8-10 weeks.

I'm currently using the iMac as my main computer for day-to-day work and I use the PC as my video editing box and for anything compute intensive or that needs Windows. I find being able to switch between the iMac and PC is a lot more convenient than using Boot Camp.
 
sphinx99 said:
As an aside I very much enjoy this screen. It's bright, contrasty, colorful and my initial impressions (calibration tomorrow...) are that the gamut is average but out-of-box calibration is very accurate. I do notice a high pitch whine when the brightness setting is just one click short of maximum. At maximum, there is no whine, and it disappears around 50% brightness.

Very noticeable in a quiet room but I either run the display at 50% or 100% so it has not been an issue.
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could you please guys tell me what are your thoughts about the black levels this H-IPS panel is offering? can't find any good review of the iMac display anywhere, nobody seems to be interested... :(

I plan to use the 27" as the main display for my gaming windows PC...after following this thread and your findings for a while and seeing that there is at least one card of the 3xxx and another of the 4xxx series that work with this iMac it makes me be hopeful that evetually the 5xxx series will get to work with the 27" too. However when it comes to the display quality I still can't find a reliable way to make sure it will be is up to my expectations particularly in terms of black level quality... I am confident that in terms of color quality this edge-lit LED H-IPS LCD stands out above everyone else, but what about black levels _specially_ in a dark rooms ? do they appear as mild "greys" ? or do you find they to be close to pure black levels ?

if you switch off the lights of your room and place an image like the one below in the iMAC display, which picture would you say is more representative of what you see ? the one on the left or the one in the right ?

polarizer.jpg


I know you can't expect miracles from edge-lit LED monitors when it comes to black levels, but I was hopeful that this exclusive panel that LG has manufactured for Apple would stand out also when it comes to that...

thanks a lot for your help!
 
At full brightness the blacks are not so much so, but around 30-40% brightness they really are black. It's not the best I've ever seen (my old and only semi-functional F520 makes this look like a toy when it comes to displaying dark grays) but it's definitely among the very best LCDs. I use a pair of calibrated 2475w displays all day at work and this a significant step up.
 
Just thought of something. Any reason why 4890s in Crossfire would not work? 2 x 4890 is some serious pixel driving muscle, should be perfect for 2560 x 1440.
 
i want to buy that 27 imac as my main display for pc connected with that bytecc cable.
Can i start my pc and have the display show the win desktop or do i have to power on the imac first, see the os x desktop and switch it to win?
I just want it as a 27 display for pc, i'm not interested in mac
Thank you
 
sphinx99 said:
At full brightness the blacks are not so much so, but around 30-40% brightness they really are black. It's not the best I've ever seen (my old and only semi-functional F520 makes this look like a toy when it comes to displaying dark grays) but it's definitely among the very best LCDs. I use a pair of calibrated 2475w displays all day at work and this a significant step up.
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well ...that´s encouraging! guess then the bl quality you observe is closer to the one showing on the right side of the picture above than the one on the left, correct? certainly if it is somewhere near to the quality delivered by the NEC 2690wuxi2 it should be fine... it is just that i am sick of the black level quality delivered by my dell 2407. it is the late 2006 model sporting a S-PVA panel; it delivers a superb quality in colorful images but when it comes to dark scenes it is awful and becomes simply unbearable if you happen to be in a dark room....

thanks!
 
... just came back from a small apple store nearby with the intention of buying the 27"....unfortunately again found another display related blocker... :\ as it happens, the exposed 27" had banding issues that were clearly visible when you opened (for example) a full screen terminal window with a 100% opaque black background; if you did, you could see as at least that 27 imac showed very good black levels for over 3/4 of the display (frin left to right) but as you looked right towards the remaining 1/4 of the screen it presented a mild gradient from black to grey that was particularly noticeable in the farthest right edge and the bottom-right corner of the display.

I asked the apple guy about that and (as usual) had no idea of what could be going on nor if it was normal or if it could be a defective display. They had no more 27" displays to compare so once again I gave up on the purchase. I might give it a try tomorrow to another apple store to compare with another display....

do you guys have noticed these banding issues on your imac 27" ? when showing a full black window on the display, can you see an uniform black level or does it have brighter spots in a particular area of the display ?

thanks
 
rickao said:
Can i start my pc and have the display show the win desktop or do i have to power on the imac first, see the os x desktop and switch it to win?
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The iMac has to be powered on and booted into Mac OS X for the target display mode feature to work. The ability to use the iMac as a standalone monitor is something built into the Mac OS X video driver, not the hardware itself.
 
circularreference said:
The iMac has to be powered on and booted into Mac OS X for the target display mode feature to work. The ability to use the iMac as a standalone monitor is something built into the Mac OS X video driver, not the hardware itself.
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so in case the imac is dead, you can't use it as a monitor unless you repair it
 
deja_vu said:
the 5970 is working fabulously with iMac 27!!!
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That's interesting, but that card is probably out of most people's price range.

The fact that it works before the Windows video drivers have loaded (similar to the 4890) shows there is either a hardware issue at play with the 5700/5800 cards or some incompatibility in the Mac OS X video driver.

On a related note, AMD technical support is slowly responding to a support ticket I filed a couple weeks ago on the 5770 and they are now claiming that the 5770 requires an ACTIVE DisplayPort to mini DisplayPort adapter whereas the 4890 did not require this, which makes no sense to me. When I pressed for specific examples of what they meant, they sent me a list of qualified DP/mDP adapters, but a Google search could not find any of them. I've replied asking for more details. We'll see where that goes.
 
Does anyone think there will be a way to run an xbox (hdmi) though the imac display?

I am thinking to getting one but it would have to replace my current monitor as I don't have the room.
 
You know what, they should ALL support it. DVI and Display port are both digital standards, where supposedly the properties of the image sent are properly communicated through the interface. Am I alone in thinking that this crap should just work?? I mean last time I checked it was 2009 .... If the 27" can use a DVI adapted source from another Apple computer, it should work with any DVI adapted source. It seems that people are only having luck with display port devices. I guess it's another reason to buy ATI instead of nVidia. Display port.

And HDMI is also digital, and should also be able to have some kind of adapter so it plays nice with display port. Display port was supposed to be universal, but it still is sounding awfully proprietary as of yet.
 
funstuie said:
Does anyone think there will be a way to run an xbox (hdmi) though the imac display?
Click to expand...

Not until some active DVI/HDMI -> DisplayPort adapters that can output 2560x1440 hit the market. Belkin is supposedly working on one and I believe Geffen as well. Atlona has one that does 1920x1200 but several people have said it doesn't work with the iMac and that they're working a new rev that will. But keep in mind these will probably all cost around $150-$200.


SirKronan said:
You know what, they should ALL support it. DVI and Display port are both digital standards, where supposedly the properties of the image sent are properly communicated through the interface. Am I alone in thinking that this crap should just work?? I mean last time I checked it was 2009 .... If the 27" can use a DVI adapted source from another Apple computer, it should work with any DVI adapted source. It seems that people are only having luck with display port devices.
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DisplayPort is a totally different technology (i.e. packet-based) as compared to DVI/HDMI. It's like IDE vs. SATA ... you wouldn't expect to be able to plug an old IDE hard drive into a SATA port on your motherboard with a simple cable.

The reason a Macbook Pro can output DVI and DisplayPort from the same output is because the video card natively supports both DVI and DisplayPort and just happens to share the same physical pins & output port for both and uses a cheap adapter to "break out" the particular connector that you need.
 
circularreference said:
Not until some active DVI/HDMI -> DisplayPort adapters that can output 2560x1440 hit the market. Belkin is supposedly working on one and I believe Geffen as well. Atlona has one that does 1920x1200 but several people have said it doesn't work with the iMac and that they're working a new rev that will. But keep in mind these will probably all cost around $150-$200.

DisplayPort is a totally different technology (i.e. packet-based) as compared to DVI/HDMI. It's like IDE vs. SATA ... you wouldn't expect to be able to plug an old IDE hard drive into a SATA port on your motherboard with a simple cable.

The reason a Macbook Pro can output DVI and DisplayPort from the same output is because the video card natively supports both DVI and DisplayPort and just happens to share the same physical pins & output port for both and uses a cheap adapter to "break out" the particular connector that you need.
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This is true, I just think if they're going to advertise it as accepting input it should work with a wider variety of sources. Hopefully the adapters that are coming out don't stay in the $150-200 range for long. That's an awful lot of money added to an already expensive display. The 30" LG is looking nicer all the time ....

I was just hoping to kill three birds with one stone.
 
circularreference said:
Not until some active DVI/HDMI -> DisplayPort adapters that can output 2560x1440 hit the market. Belkin is supposedly working on one and I believe Geffen as well. Atlona has one that does 1920x1200 but several people have said it doesn't work with the iMac and that they're working a new rev that will. But keep in mind these will probably all cost around $150-$200.




DisplayPort is a totally different technology (i.e. packet-based) as compared to DVI/HDMI. It's like IDE vs. SATA ... you wouldn't expect to be able to plug an old IDE hard drive into a SATA port on your motherboard with a simple cable.

The reason a Macbook Pro can output DVI and DisplayPort from the same output is because the video card natively supports both DVI and DisplayPort and just happens to share the same physical pins & output port for both and uses a cheap adapter to "break out" the particular connector that you need.
Click to expand...

Well, you would expect a first generation storage interface to work with a first generation storage device. With display standards, you can pretty much assume that it's not going to work properly for at least a year or two. Look how long it took for DVI and HDMI to actually work. DP is the same fiasco yet again.
 
I'm not an Apple fan myself, but I have to give credit where credit is due. The quality of the display in the 27" iMac is astounding. I was giving my friend files and he had it set up by my PC with my 24" BenQ V2400w, and it just made my monitor look bad. I'm under the impression that the V2400w is one of best TN panels as well. The viewing angles on the iMac are amazing too. No color inversion or changes at any angle. If you're willing to fork out the money for an amazingly detailed display, the iMac is definitely the one to get. It's still an Apple though, yuck. They need to sell that screen as a stand-alone monitor!
 
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