poor performance for higher end pc

I have a similar rig, slightly less powerful.

i7-4770 @ 3.5GHz w/16GB RAM

GTX 1060 w/ 6GB VRAM

Most graphics at Ultra or High

G-Sync, Full-screen, 2560x1440 @ 144Hz

I'm getting 50-70 fps consistently, including in the Hinterlands.  Even in combat.  But the game caps all cutscenes at 30 fps, and the prologue (until you reach Haven) has a TON of cutscenes!

Maybe you can play with the graphics settings and see if that makes any difference?

sadly that never worked i had every graphics setting turned down even the graphics scaling was at it's lowest, and nothing really changed.

i did some digging and found visual studio 2012 update 4, that seemed to smooth the performance a little, but not enough. could there be something not installed or not installed properly to make this happen?

Given your rig's specs, there's something strange going on.  Some software that's causing the sub-normal performance you're having.  No idea what, so have you tried a clean boot?

did a clean boot and went to redclifffe village to benchmark it, the fps was 12-24. i forgot to mention i did a clean install of 10 x64 pro. 

@failbot97; So I just checked on my own rig and I'm getting a consistent 50-60 fps in Redcliffe.  (Lowest was 47, and that was just momentary.)  And I observed the same performance at The Crossroads.  I believe the approx. 20% drop from the average I see elsewhere may be due to the high number of NPCs in those locations who have event- or proximity-driven dialogue triggers.  (But what do I know?)  In any case, it was still well within the acceptable range.

So...  Your rig *should* be producing acceptable performance, but it isn't.  The same game on a (basically) similar machine doesn't have the problems yours does.  Ergo, there's something else on your machine that's sucking-up the cpu/gpu cycles.

No idea what though.  ☹️

What a/v are you using?  Any hardware overlays (e.g Razer, Logitech, Steelseries) or background software (e.g. Teamviewer) running?

EDIT:  For reference, here are my current Graphics settings. (Note the 144 fps in the top-left corner.  That's typical for me with the fairly static/menu items.):

i am using displayport as it it the only way to get 60hz with  my monitor. hardware overlays? i odn't think so, is the nvidia geforce experience overlay one? i don't think there is any background overlay that might be causing that. my cpu usage was around 14% when i last played and my gpu was 20-30%, could this be a bottleneck or power issue? my psu is a corsair rm850 80w+80 gold.

Things to try if you haven't already.....

delete/rename the files profileoptions and profileoptions_options located inside your DAI saves folder....this resets all in game options to default and sometimes fixes strange things.

Go into Nvidia game settings and try the "optimized" setting for DAI and if it is already there, try custom with settings fairly high.

Resize your display in computer settings, IIRC it showed you running 1920x1080 60hz and natural setting for monitor was IIRC twice that, so resize it up to the 3940x2160 60hz and retry after reboot....resize back if you don't like it and recheck after reboot.

The issue as I see it is in the GPU not ramping up, which I would say is usually driver issue, or maybe interference by another program....such as fraps, teamspeak, geforce overlay, etc...

Even with SLI good cards you would expect to see 50-90% GPU use unless capped frames lowered it for you, as most times my FPS is capped at 60, and just in DAI my MSI 290X lightning was pulling between 60-90% useage.  While it isn't near as good as your twin cards, it still shows that running fully your cards should be able to do it, BUT they aren't being pushed up to do it.

renamed the files and changing the settings did not work, in fact when i used the optimal setting on my native resolution the game was slower. tried doing a clean install of the latest driver did nothing. how do i check if i have capped fps?

Vsinc IIRC caps the frame rate to 60, or maybe whatever your refresh rate is set at...in my case if Vsinc is set to on for game or in AMD settings it caps my framerate to 60 no matter what other settings or game quality allows.  Some find this a good thing if for instance you have an older game and it runs at max 200fps, your card/s may be stressed due to running max all the time and cause some overheating and since most games/monitors don't get much benefit from frames over 60 anyway, it is unnecessary wear and tear on hardware.  Some programs and overlays can also do the same, such as fraps, and some streaming or sharing programs....team speak, etc...

I would also check your power profiles and make sure you have them set to maximum quality and nothing about saving energy thus making the OP system default to max usage available hardware for FPS instead of trying to run on a slim energy budget and just getting by.

Saw a post on another forum also about turning off HPET in bios for Win7-8.1 op systems to get some performance upgrades. 

Also have you run temp monitors for both CPU and GPU??  Doubt it is an issue, but wander if something is overheating and cycling down??  Also what kind of CPU load are you running during all this??  Wandering if something is bogging down your CPU thus it isn't feeding your GPU and it is lagging....  I had a memory program that would run whenever my memory load got too high and it would take up 25% of the CPU clearing memory out....which at the time I had it was a very bad thing since the game used 75-90% CPU load to run and background programs and such pulled the rest, so whenever the memory program triggered, I would get horrible frame rates...found the culprit, uninstalled it and it smoothed out...Also wandering about individual core temps and loads....