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It's one of the most annoying parts of modern gaming, and lag shows its ugly head in Minecraft like many other games.
Addressing the lag in Minecraft requires a few of the same tactics that work in other game titles. Before doing so, it's essential to know the distinction between lag and FPS drops, as the two are often conflated.
FPS (or frames per second) drops occur and cause visual stuttering regardless of whether players are online or offline. Lag occurs online when players attempt to perform an action, which occurs later than it normally would. This is often seen when breaking blocks or attacking mobs.
Minecraft: Potential lag fixes on high-end machines
In most situations, Minecraft lag occurs when factors obstruct or slow down the program's ability to communicate with a server. This can even occur in LAN situations where a host's connection cannot facilitate data transfer between multiple players and, therefore, delays certain interactions.
Network lag tends to occur on multiplayer servers that don't have the hardware to correlate the actions of a significant number of players. Players who use hosting services for their servers tend not to run into these issues as often, though they aren't immune from lag either.
For players experiencing lag that isn't actively hosting the server, lag can occur when their connection to the server of choice is inhibited. There are many ways to address this and hopefully improve one's situation.
Major lag-causing issues and solutions
1) If players are playing on a wireless connection, move closer to the wireless access point to improve the link. If this doesn't help, utilizing a wired connection such as connecting your PC to the access point via an ethernet cable can stabilize and improve connection speed.
2) Disabling one's firewall/antivirus or creating an exception in them for Minecraft can keep your machine's security features from slowing down downloads/uploads of data.
3) If players are utilizing a VPN, disabling it during gameplay may be a prudent move, as these programs can make it difficult for the server to connect with the player's machine depending on the VPN's encryption and its settings for the machine's IP address.
4) Ensure that there are no outstanding drains on your internet connection. If other devices on the network are downloading large files or are actively streaming media, the network's bandwidth may be overtasked, leading to delays and lower internet speeds.
5) In some cases, certain internet service providers can "cap" internet speeds or total usage to a certain number. This is known as "throttling" and is something that players likely won't be able to get around on their own. They'll either need to take it up with their ISP, invest in a VPN, or change service providers to circumvent this issue.
6) A poor connection to a server may also be on the server's side, meaning that all players are dealing with lag simultaneously. This will need to be handled by server administrators and can't often be addressed by players unless server congestion is at play. In that event, players logging off can reduce the network strain on the server.
