A guide by ablazingeboy
NOTE: This guide is written for 1.16.5, as many mods aren't available for 1.17 yet. Once all the prerequisite mods are available for 1.17, this guide should work for that version as well.
Before we even consider optimizing Minecraft, make sure your actual PC is performing at it's best. If you're running Windows, run a malware scan using something like Malwarebytes and make sure everything is hunky-dory. If you're running any OS, and you've been running the same install for years, consider backing up your data, wiping, and starting fresh. Viruses, or computer "cruft" accumulated over the years can really shoot your performance in the foot. If you're on a particularly old/low-spec machine, consider possibly switching to Linux.
This guide is not infallible, and can only help computers that are reasonably old. If you have a spec that is 10+ years old (like a Core 2 Duo and no GPU), or something super ridiculously low spec (like a netbook with an intel atom or Celeron), it's unlikely this will help significantly.
To start off, we'll want to install Fabric. Fabric is a mod loader that'll allow us to install performance enhancing mods we'll need. There are many tutorials on how to install fabric, so I won't go into that here. Installing Fabric on the default launcher is kind of a pain, so if that seems too intimidating, MultiMC is a third party launcher that makes installing fabric really easy.
Once you have Fabric installed, you'll want to install these mods. Download the appropriate .jar file and put it in the mods folder. If this is your first time modding Minecraft, there are many tutorials out there that explain how to install mods. Remember to install the 1.16.5 version of the mod:
- Fabric API - A mod that other mods we'll be using depend on, doesn't actually do anything on it's own
- OptiFabric - A mod that allows Optifine to work with Fabric
- Optifine - An optimization mod that provides us many of the options we will be using later
- Phosphor - A mod that optimizes lighting in minecraft to improve performance
Shameless self-plug: These mods are also included in Foli Client. Foli Client also doesn't include any other mods that have a significant impact on performance. If you're using Foli Client for this guide, remember to select Optifine when the installer asks whether you want to use Optifine or Sodium.
Q: But eboy, Sodium gives me better framerates than Optifine! Why not use Sodium?
A: Sodium does give you better framerates sometimes, especially on newer hardware. However, many of the key settings used in this guide to make Minecraft work on true potatos aren't available on Sodium, and will provide framerates significantly higher than what Sodium can offer.
Stage 1 is about tackling the easiest ways to increase performance, without sacrificing any of the core game experience.
Open Minecraft, click Options, and go into Video Settings.
- Set Graphics to Fast
- Turn Smooth Lighting off (Smooth Lighting Level is irrelevant here)
- Set Max Framerate to Unlimited (We will change this later)
- Turn Dynamic Lights off
- Turn View Bobbing and Entity Shadows off
- For Render Distance, set it based on what you're playing or how much of a potato your computer is. Note that Render Distance easily makes the biggest impact on performance, so it's a very important setting. If you're playing singleplayer, or have a really potato computer, set it to 2. If you're playing multiplayer, start off with 4.
The rest of the settings on this page are up to personal preference.
- Set Clouds, Trees, Fog, Translucent Blocks, Dropped Items, Vignette, and Rain & Snow to Fast
- Set Fog Start to 0.2 (This is personal preference, but it makes the game look a bit nicer when playing with low render distance)
- Set Particles to Decreased.
- Turn Mipmap Levels, Anisotropic Filtering, Antialiasing, Emissive Textures, Random Entities, Connected Textures, and Distortion Effects off.
- Turn Render Regions and Dynamic Updatesoff
- Turn Smart Animations, Smooth FPS, Lazy Chunk Loading, Fast Render, Fast Math, and Smooth World on
- Turn on Show FPS for now, this can be turned off after we test the results
Now that you've made the setting changes, jump into where you usually play, whether it's a singleplayer world or a server, and play, keeping an eye on your framerates.
- If you're getting 30+ consistently, you're definitely good to go, continue onto Final Notes
- If you're getting 20-30, you have a decision to make. Playing at around 20 fps is definitely playable, but if you value FPS a lot, consider doing the Stage 2 tweaks
- If you're getting below 20 consistently, proceed to Stage 2
Stage 2 is about juicing out as much framerate as you can, at the cost of ingame features.
Note: I highly suggest going to Accessibility settings and turning on Subtitles, as these tweaks will turn off rendering for features such as weather and particles, so the subtitles will at least tell you what's going on in the game
- Turn Sky, Fog, Rain & Snow, and Biome Blend off
- Set Entity Distance to 50%
- Click the "All OFF" button to turn all animations off
- Set Particles to minimal
Set Fullscreen to on. Running the game in fullscreen is better for performance for technical reasons I won't get into here.
Setting Fullscreen Resolution is a last resort, as it's kind of fucky and can look significantly worse. Only experiment with this if you've applied the rest of Stage 2 and still have subpar FPS. However, it does have massive performance gain in some cases. I only really advise using this setting if your monitor resolution is above 1080p. I'd go one "major" resolution below the native resolution (e.g. using 1080p on a 1440p monitor, or 1440p on a 4k monitor). Going below 1080p isn't really advisable.
Having a playable Minecraft is more about consistent FPS as opposed to high FPS. Thus, you'll want to limit your maximum FPS, even if your game spikes higher at times, because it'll look smoother. Play the game for a bit, and pay attention to your FPS counter. Then, set your maximum FPS to either 20, 30, or 60, depending on what your computer can handle consistently. Ideally, your FPS should almost constsntly be at that maximum value.
If you've gone through all of this, and are still getting less than 20 FPS consistently, then the only advice I really have would be to try playing an older version, such as 1.8.9 or 1.12.2. Those versions in particular still have many servers available (1.8 is favored by some of the PvP community, and 1.12 is favored by many modders and the anarchy community), and you'll likely be able to get better performance on those versions if optimized well.