Fullscreen is windowed, and Windowed-Fullscreen is Fullscreen (duh)

[uSnSheaffey]

So, I've had this problem as long as I can remember, and I am still having it after a fresh install. When I try to change my display settings to 'Fullscreen', my game goes into windowed mode, as seen below. This has forced me to play most of my time in 'Windowed-Fullscreen' (or Fullscreen-Windowed, I can't remember which). This wouldn't really be a problem if I hadn't read several different opinions on 'Windowed-Fullscreen' giving a noticeable performance hit. As I play on a laptop, I can play at ~45-60 fps at medium settings in 1080p, I would like to see if this is true and if it will allow me even a small increase in performance. 

Here's the screen:

http://img.ctrlv.in/img/15/10/02/560e276eccbcc.png                   ##By the way, how do you insert images into these forums (I can't find it anywhere, unless it is 'insert code')

And my Dxdiag: http://hastebin.com/oyocolidob.tex

[Fred_vdp · Accepted solution]

This game has issues running full-screen on mobile Nvidia GPUs. It's a well known issue but no fix has ever been offered. I believe they didn't consider mobile GPUs to be cards when they drafted the system requirements.

[Leora85]

Card name: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600
Manufacturer: Intel
Corporation Chip type: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family

This could be your problem. Have you made sure the game is using your NVidia card, not this one? I'm not sure if the Nvidia card meets the minimum system requirements, but the Intel one definitely doesn't. I've never had a computer with an integrated graphics card, so I'm not sure how to make it look at the better card first, but I'm sure google can help (certainly seems to be a common issue around DA:I since Trespasser came out, too).

[uSnSheaffey]

My Nvidia card is a GTX 860m and I have set DA: I (and everything) to run on this card in the Nvidia Control Panel.

[Leora85]

(Oh, and P.S. you can insert images by uploading them to a hosting site and using the 'insert image' function, looks like mountains in the editor).

I could see what your Nvidia card was from your dxdiag, I'm just not sure if it meets minimum requirements (since they only mention desktop GPUs, not laptop ones. And I'm very out of date on my knowledge of video cards ).
Does the NVidia control panel override Windows settings? I've seen a few people on here who've thought they had their games running on their 'proper' GPUs only to find something was making the Intel GPU be used instead.

You might have to go into BIOS to disable the Intel GPU or change the load order of the GPUs (probably preferable in a laptop, depends what your BIOS allows). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtDkczrf5fI Might give you an idea of what to do, or a google search.

Or I could be wrong and it has nothing to do with your GPU. Just seems the likely culprit to me

[uSnSheaffey]

I highly doubt it is running on the Intel card, as the Intel card wouldn't perform anywhere near as well as my 860m. I know this because I've had other games run on the Intel card by accident and perform horribly (until I fixed it) and when I use ENB with games it shows what GPU i'm using.

[Leora85]

Have you got GeForce experience? Have you tried fiddling with settings on there and launching the game that way? Any difference?
Other than that, I can't think of any other suggestions at the moment. 

[Fred_vdp · Accepted solution]

This game has issues running full-screen on mobile Nvidia GPUs. It's a well known issue but no fix has ever been offered. I believe they didn't consider mobile GPUs to be cards when they drafted the system requirements.

[uSnSheaffey]

That sounds about right...