Fullscreen optimizations - does it really affect anything or is it just one of those gamer placebo legends?

[Kokmagok]

I want an INFORMED answer to this question. It's been hard to find a solid answer, since most of the really confirent people spreading "facts" on the internet have no idea what they're talking about. Is there a CONFIRMED negative effect of this feature? And if there is, how big is the impact?

[ugafan]

Fullscreen is supposed to give you the best performance, but the reality is if you have a modern gaming computer you're likely not going to see much of an impact -- if any at all.

I generally stick to borderless window because it's quicker to alt-tab.

If you want to test it out for yourself in a specific game you could run a benchmark and see.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

I think OP is referring to the added "fullscreen optimization" option on exe properties area in Win10.

It can help to disable it, with some games that experience the "black screen" issue from alt+tab or other problems when a game is full screen and switched out of it and back in again. Because with it left enabled, Win10 is basically brute forcing exclusive full screen, which is not good for games you wish to be switch in and out of. It should have no bearing on many other common desktop apps though. But again you always have that choice should you experience issues for any app that allows a full screen option.

It is by default enabled for everything in Win10. The app source exe is where to put a stop to that if you want it disabled on a per-app basis. Within Properties, Compatability, All Users.

Borderless windowed mode is generally the way to go. Especially in today's world where many like to use multi Display setups and also multi-task. Full screen of any kind adds delays, and some games straight do not like alt+tab when it's running full screen. Many games allow you to easily switch between full screen and windowed mode via alt+enter, but many also do not, mostly all those older and/or legacy games.