The biggest FPS win in Minecraft is Sodium, a free Fabric mod that rewrites rendering, and Lithium, which speeds up game logic. Together they often double frame rates on weaker machines. One heads-up up front: Lithium is not compatible with Opal, so if you run Opal, lean on Sodium instead.
- Sodium is the single biggest FPS win. Install it first.
- Lithium smooths game logic, but it is not compatible with Opal. Skip it if you run Opal.
- Three vanilla settings (render distance, VSync, graphics) finish the job.
- Sodium gives you headroom; that is what makes room for a client like Opal.
Install the mods
Install Sodium
Sodium replaces Minecraft's renderer with a far faster one, the biggest jump on its own. Put the Fabric loader and the Fabric API in place first, then drop Sodium in your mods folder. Sodium works fine alongside Opal.
Add Lithium (if you are not running Opal)
Lithium optimizes mob AI, physics, and block ticking with no visual change. It is a great add on a vanilla-plus setup, but it does not play nicely with Opal, so leave it out if Opal is installed.
Running Opal? Skip Lithium
Lithium is not compatible with Opal. Use Sodium for your framerate and leave Lithium out of the folder. Sodium alone covers the rendering side, which is the larger win anyway.
Tune three settings
- Render distance: drop it a chunk or two if your GPU is the bottleneck.
- VSync: off for uncapped frames.
- Graphics: set to Fast for an easy extra boost.
Quick win
Lower render distance is the single biggest in-game lever after Sodium. Going from 16 to 12 chunks can hand back a large chunk of your framerate with almost no visual cost in close-range PvP.
Adding a client
Opal installs into the same mods folder as Sodium. It is a full client with 200+ features, so like any large mod it uses some resources while it runs. That is exactly why Sodium matters: it gives you the headroom to run a feature set like Opal's and still play smoothly. Keep Sodium in, leave Lithium out, and Opal has room to work.
At a glance
| Want | Install |
|---|---|
| Higher FPS (rendering) | Sodium |
| Smoother game logic (not with Opal) | Lithium |
| Required base | Fabric API |
| Shaders | Iris |
| 200+ features | Opal |
FAQ
Sodium. It rewrites rendering and is the largest single gain for most setups.
No. Lithium does not work with Opal. Pair Opal with Sodium and leave Lithium out.
Opal is a full client, so like any large mod it uses some resources while it runs. Keep Sodium installed for headroom and you will be fine on most machines.
Yes. Add Iris and see how to install shaders.
