What do the NVIDIA SLI Configuration Settings Mean?

Question

I have two NVIDIA GTX 760 cards. The first is connected to a single Apple 30" display (Display 1, in the middle), the second is connected to two Apple 30" displays (Displays 2 and 3, on each side of Display 1). I have an SLI bridge connecting the two cards. OS is Win7.

I'm trying to figure out which SLI configuration to select in the NVIDIA Control Panel. My choices are:

• Maximize 3D Performance
• Span displays with Surround
• Axtivate all displays
• Disable SLI

Even with the "typical usage scenarios" in the Control Panel for each setting, it's still unclear exactly what each config setting actually does.

I want to optimize the SLI settings of the video cards for video editing using (for now) Windows Movie Maker. I might upgrade to something more industrial strength leter. I don't play games, which is what most of the search results regarding SLI talk about.

What should I pick, and why? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I'll try to simply explain each mode :

• Maximize 3D Performance => Use both cards to render the image on-screen, for better performance, both screens should be connected on the same card (typical usage : games)
• Span displays with Surround => Will make you two screens one (Only one surface) Uses SLI to dwraw the entire surface. Example usage : Run a game on three screens (2 only have limited interest since the middle of the surface which is basically one of the most important screen zone will be between your two monitors)
• Activate all displays => This one was not active when I had a SLI configuration, can't help you on this.... (Seems to be enabled on 3 screens configuration and more, will allow to enable a maximum number of displays (is disabled windows can limit the maximum number of displays))
• Disable SLI => Well seems obvious....

Please note that the only options that will allow the two cards to work together (and thus enabling the SLI are Maximize 3D Performance and Span displays with Surround)

What you should pick depends on how you plan to use your computer

Hope I helped

Please note that I improved my answer as per this thread (see the accepted answer)