Is there anyway to run 2 cards in SLI while 3 monitors are active?

AfroCircuit

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May 7, 2014
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Within the NVIDIA control panel there are 4 opeions under the SLI configuration page.

-Maximize 3D performance

-Span displays with Surround

-Activate all displays

-Disable SLI

After looking around I've been lead to believe that "Activate all displays" only enables all of the outputs of the card (within the supported specs of the card) to be used, but doesn't allow the use of SLI for the cards when gaming.

When I pick the "Maximize 3D performance" option it only lets me at max run 2 monitors out of 3 where as If I pick "activate all displays" I can click on the dedicate to PhysX check box with does seem to allow both cards to be used when gaming, but as the check box would have me believe, only uses my second card for PhysX and leaves the rest of the workload to the first GPU

So my question is. Is the only way I can actually run full SLI with my cards, where both cards are actually working together, to change the settings to Maximize 3D Performance whenever I want to game then setting it back to Activate all displays when I want to go back to 3 monitors.

I'm currently running 2 560ti's in SLI at the moment, each of which can run 2 displays on their own out of SLI.
 

AfroCircuit

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May 7, 2014
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I have run Surround and that works just fine, but when I configure it that way it set it up as a 5760x1080 monitor rather than allowing them to function as 3 independent displays. Basically what I want to be able to do is benefit from the full effects of having 2 cards in SLI while gaming on a single monitor and then be able to go back to having 3 individual displays when at desktop without having to change my settings back and forth between "activate all displays" and "maximize 3D performace". I don't mind if my side monitors blank out when I'm gaming, but the irritation comes from the whole having to switch modes manually, especially since every time you try it does the whole "you must close down this this and this app to continue".

If my cards were a bit more powerful I wouldn't mind just setting it to surround and just using third part software to split it back into 3 desktops, but because of the light age of my cards, I can't run a lot of games at max settings anymore when I run it in surround (for instance I have to put physx to low in surround to get decent performance where as on a single monitor the tow card do just fine).

Sorry for the late reply.