How to Boost FPS in Modded Minecraft

The 2026 optimization stack, by loader

Most of the gain comes from a replacement rendering engine, backed by specialized mods that cut wasted work. The right combination depends on your pack’s loader:

• Sodium — the reference rendering engine (195 million downloads): available on Fabric and NeoForge, updated through the game’s 26.x versions. The single biggest FPS gain from one mod.
• Embeddium — the community continuation of Sodium for Forge packs on 1.20.1 and older: the one to grab for RLCraft-era and classic Forge packs when it is not already included.
• Entity Culling — stops computing entities you cannot see (behind walls, down in caves): a major win in bases full of chests and machines. All loaders.
• ImmediatelyFast — speeds up interface, sign and effect rendering: very noticeable in modpacks with busy HUDs. All loaders.
• Dynamic FPS — cuts the load while the game sits in the background or idle: your PC gets a break while you read a wiki. All loaders.
• Iris — the modern shader loader compatible with OptiFine-format shader packs, on Fabric and NeoForge: essential if you want shaders, see the dedicated section.

Installing the FPS stack into an existing modpack

Every mod above is client-side only: you can add them to almost any modpack, including for server play, without breaking anything. The method:

1. 1

   Identify the pack’s loader and version

   In your launcher, open the profile details: note the loader (NeoForge, Fabric, Forge) and the Minecraft version (say, 1.21.1). Every mod you add must match both exactly.

2. 2

   Check what is already installed

   Search the profile’s mod list for sodium, embeddium or entityculling: many recent packs already bundle part of the stack. Never install a duplicate — two rendering engines will crash the game.

3. 3

   Download the missing mods from Modrinth

   On each Modrinth page (links at the end of this guide), filter by your loader and Minecraft version, then download the matching file. On Forge 1.20.1 and older, take Embeddium instead of Sodium.

4. 4

   Drop the files into the profile’s mods folder

   From your launcher, open the profile folder (usually right click, then Open folder) and drag the .jar files into the mods subfolder. The CurseForge, Modrinth and Prism launchers can also add these mods directly from their interface.

5. 5

   Check your RAM allocation

   While you are in the settings, verify the allocation: 4 to 6 GB for a light or mid-size pack, 8 GB for an ATM-class giant. Too much RAM hurts performance — the details are in our dedicated guide.

6. 6

   Launch, measure, adjust

   Start the game and bring up the FPS counter (F3, or Sodium’s own overlay). Note the number, then apply the in-game settings from the next section and compare: you will know exactly what each change buys you.

Shaders: the real price of beauty

Shaders turn the game into a postcard, but they are the number one FPS eater: an average shader pack cuts frame rates by half to three quarters before modded Minecraft even enters the picture. The modern solution is Iris: compatible with OptiFine-format shader packs, designed to run alongside Sodium, available on Fabric and NeoForge, and maintained through the 26.x versions.

The pragmatic advice: stabilize your FPS without shaders first, then add a light pack (the lite editions of the popular shaders) and measure. On a modpack already heavy with machines and entities, a demanding shader turns industrial districts into a slideshow — save the spectacular shaders for building and exploration sessions.

The in-game settings that actually matter

• Render distance: lever number one. Going from 16-32 down to 8-12 chunks is a massive gain for a modest visual difference — especially with Distant Horizons filling in the horizon.
• Simulation distance: bring it to 8 chunks or less — it drives world logic (mobs, crops) and weighs heavily in modded packs.
• Graphics on Fast rather than Fancy: opaque leaves and simplified effects, easy frames.
• Entity shadows and clouds: turn the former off, set the latter to Fast or off.
• Particles on Decreased: modded factories spew them by the thousands.
• VSync: disable it to measure your true FPS; re-enable it afterwards if your screen tears.
• Fullscreen rather than windowed: often a few free frames depending on the system.

RAM, drivers and hardware: real levers and fake ones

RAM is the most overrated lever: beyond what the pack actually needs, every extra gigabyte makes Java’s garbage-collection pauses worse instead of helping. Stay at 4 to 6 GB for a typical pack, 8 for the giants, and see the dedicated guide to fine-tune. Two levers are underrated in return: GPU drivers — update them from the manufacturer’s site, the gains on modern Minecraft are real from one release to the next — and plugging in your laptop, which silently throttles its GPU on battery.

On the hardware side, modded Minecraft is CPU-bound first (a single core does most of the simulation work), then GPU-bound once shaders and long render distances enter the picture. If you are choosing one component to upgrade for modded play: CPU first, unless shaders are the goal.

Distant Horizons: see 256 chunks without paying for them

Distant Horizons deserves its own section: this mod (over 30 million downloads) renders the far landscape as simplified terrain, letting you combine a genuinely low render distance (8-12 chunks) with scenery that stretches to 256 chunks and beyond. In 2026 it is available on Fabric, NeoForge and Forge, covers versions from 1.16 through 1.21.x and tracks the 26.x releases, and integrates with shaders through Iris — several popular shader packs (Bliss, BSL, Complementary and others) know how to light its distant terrain.

Two caveats: the mod spends CPU and RAM generating its terrain data — the first hours in a world, while the cache builds, are the heaviest — and on servers it only shows areas you have already visited by default. It is a spectacular visual-comfort mod, best added once your FPS baseline is stable.