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Can u hook in 2 computers to a single monitor?

Last response: in Graphics & Displays

Quick question I'm hoping somebody can assist me with:

My wife has two computers - a mac pro that she uses for work and a gaming pc that sits right beside it. The mac pro has the good screeen ( 30" apple plasma monitor ) and the gaming computer has a fairly crappy screen by comparison.

I'm wondering if it is possible to hook BOTH computers into the same monitor and flip back and forth as needed ( without needing to unplug it every time ). She only uses one computer at a time.

Any suggestions on if this can be done are appreciated.


I would say so yes.

So long as the 30" screen has more than one input (i'm assuming so) just plug the glorified linux computer *ahem* Mac into one of the inputs and the real computer *ahem* gaming PC into another input.

Any idea what will happen if both computers are on at the same time? I know that common sense says to just try it ... but my wife won't let me do it until we know in advance that it won't mess her up. How does the monitor know which computer's input to accept?
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I'm going to guess it will flick to the input it receives a signal from first, then i can only guess that there will be some function to cycle through the inputs from there, much like a television.

I'm literally going off educated intuition here though.

Hmmmmm ... sounds logical for sure. Got me sold. Guess I'll have to see if I can talk her into trying it lol. If you dont' hear back from me ... please send help!


Nothing should blow up (but then again it IS Apple so i wouldn't put money on it) so i say just give it a try. If it doesn't work it doesn't work, and if something bad goes wrong, that's what house insurance is for...

Best solution

a c 106 U Graphics card
a b C Monitor

2 PCs to one monitor is fine, if it's a 30" monitor it's pretty much guaranteed to have a A/B connection and a button on the bezel to swap between them.
a c 167 U Graphics card
a b C Monitor

If it doesnt work the way you want, you can always try a KVM switch that way she would only need one mouse and one keyboard setup for both machines and you flip between them with a key combo.