How to stream Windows to macOS?

[TrenttonY]

Hello,

I'm thinking of building a gaming PC and would like to just use my 4K iMac's display. I don't want to boot my Mac into Windows, or us a VM, just 'stream'.

How would I do this? App? HDMI?

 

[Cougarcat]

If you use Steam, it has streaming capabilities built in. http://store.steampowered.com/streaming/

 

[AFEPPL]

iMacs don't have HDMI in.
Its not really possible on the newer devices via hardware. Huge miss by apple.

 

[TrenttonY]

If you use Steam, it has streaming capabilities built in. http://store.steampowered.com/streaming/

Yea I planned on using that as well, but for when I need to update Windows, etc I need to see the desktop. Oh well guess I have to buy a cheap small monitor.

 

[Cougarcat]

Yea I planned on using that as well, but for when I need to update Windows, etc I need to see the desktop. Oh well guess I have to buy a cheap small monitor.

After you get it set up you could then use some sort of Remote Desktop thing like this: https://www.simplehelp.net/2015/11/27/how-to-control-a-windows-10-pc-from-your-mac/

But yes, to do what you really want would require Target Display Mode, which Apple sadly got rid of.

 

[Draeconis]

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/ht204592

Depending on what iMac you have, this is a good choice.

 

[killawat]

If you have nvidia use the GeForce experience/ shield streaming on your PC and stream go MacOS or any other device using the free moonlight client. I do this, works great using hardware encode on the GPU. Even FPS battlefield 1 on ultra runs smooth for me. The lag is there obviously so no competitive gaming, but it works shockingly well on a gigabit lan.

 

[xraydoc]

Remote desktop software, including Microsoft RDC, will work fine for desktop-style software but not for games.
No good solution for games...

 

[TrenttonY]

Does anyone know what the difference between a eGPU and a gaming PC?

The games I play are Planet Coaster, Civilization, etc. Those are also CPU intensive games, so are eGPU's just for a graphics boost, or also a CPU boost? I'm a little confused by just the 'GPU' in the name.

And how is this supported? Does Apple authorized only certain eGPUs to work?
Can you build a custom one?

 

[killawat]

Does anyone know what the difference between a eGPU and a gaming PC?

The games I play are Planet Coaster, Civilization, etc. Those are also CPU intensive games, so are eGPU's just for a graphics boost, or also a CPU boost? I'm a little confused by just the 'GPU' in the name.

And how is this supported? Does Apple authorized only certain eGPUs to work?
Can you build a custom one?

That's a pretty complex question. You would be better served asking this question in the subforum of the Mac (i.e. MacBook Pro) you are trying to connect an eGPU to. The forum eGPU experts don't really hang out here.

Then if you have more questions go to egpu.io. So many things depend on your existing setup and the eGPU you hope to provision. The short answer is eGPU is official supported since High Sierra was released yesterday. eGPU has been in use on MacOS for several years but alot of the work was done by the eGPU hacking community to get it working. There are some enclosures that are and aren't compatible. Same with the graphics card you choose.

The fastest way to get up and running is something like the Akitio Node and an AMD card with built in drivers, something like the RX 480. Unfortunately the cost of these cards has skyrocket due to crypto mining.

https://www.akitio.com/blog/articles/testing-node-egpu-macos-high-sierra