Push audio through HDMI without treating it as a monitor

[Cle8k]

I have a surround sound system hooked up to my computer via an HDMI cable that runs from an HDMI port on the graphics card to the sound system. The only way to push audio through this cable is to tell NVIDIA to treat it as a tertiary monitor and use it as my default audio device. This works fine, but now I have a non-existent monitor that my mouse can enter (just like your mouse can pass from one monitor to the next). Also, I fear that since video is being passed to this non-existent monitor, I'll lose some graphics performance when gaming. Taking screenshots shows this "monitor" as a complete desktop of its own, so I know it's updating continuously.

Anyone know of some workaround that allows me to pass audio without passing video, and without treating the sound system as a third monitor?

I can't post pictures, so here's an Imgur link to the picture:
https://imgur.com/a/2uYVh

 

[Petrossa]

Just un-check monitor 3 in the Control Panel. This should still allow you to use it as an audio device

 

[Cle8k]

Just un-check monitor 3 in the Control Panel. This should still allow you to use it as an audio device

Unfortunately not. Unchecking the "monitor" removes it as a device altogether, and it shows up as "Not Plugged In" under audio.