I was finally troubled last weekend to upgrade my main workstation to Windows 7, though not for the reasons you might think.  You might have been reading a year or so ago when I built Phenomenon, my then-new Quad-core AMD Phenom-based PC.  At the time, I just slapped my existing Raptor hard drive in, and let Windows XP figure it out.

Failure

Fast forward 9 months to a burnt-out BFG 9800GT video card and the replacement Radeon 5670 which had a mix-match of ports, instead of the 9800′s 2xDVI.  Just last week (just 1 year after building the PC), I got around to ordering the DisplayPort->VGA adapter, to enable me to run all 3 monitors in my array off of the one video card.

2 out of 3 ain’t bad, except when it is…

I initially chose the DisplayPort adapter in VGA because this 3rd monitor is already connected to another PC via its DVI port; It was only when I went to place my order that MonoPrice was out of the DVI version anyhow.   So the adapter came in the mail, but when I plugged it in, the DVI port on the Radeon promptly turned off.

I swapped cables around a bit and determined that the card would run any two of the 3 ports simultaneously, but never all 3.  I ran out to the web and updated my driver but still nothing.  A bunch of forums say that only the Win7 drivers support Eyefinity (though, isn’t that just the name for the span-screen gaming thing?); Either way, I’m getting nowhere.  Adapter goes on the shelf.

Mockery and Redemption

On Friday night, Richard came by to pick up some stuff and he was interested in seeing my new desk.  I ask why the 3rd monitor wasn’t working, and I recanted the tale of driver problems.

To make a long story short, Richard accused me of slacking by not updating Windows, which spurred me to action.  Now on Windows 7, I’m running the Aero interface for the first time (even though I’ve been on Win7 at work for 6 months) and it’s pretty slick.  Still don’t have multi-screen DirectX running (this seems to require your monitors to all match resolutions, which mine don’t), but the 3D performance in DX11 is very nice.

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Products, Technology by Kevin