7 best optimization mods for Minecraft 1.20

Minecraft is constantly evolving, with the new update 1.20 introducing numerous features in the game. However, you may often face performance issues which can be possible in certain systems. To solve these problems and optimize your gameplay, mods are available that will improve the performance and introduce some new features.

We have compiled a list of the seven best optimization mods for Minecraft 1.20, including OptiFine, Sodium, Vulkan, and many more.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinions.

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OptiFine, Sodium, and other amazing optimization mods for Minecraft 1.20

1) Optifine

OptiFine is one of the oldest performance mods in Minecraft. It has become so popular that many download OptiFine before getting the latest updates.

OptiFine optimizes the game and boosts its performance. It supports HD textures and reduces lag. Moreover, after installing this mod, you can customize your game with many configuration settings.

Optifine boosts FPS, supports Shaders, dynamic lighting, fog control, antialiasing, chunk load control, clear water, clear grass, and more.

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2) Sodium

Sodium was released a few years back and performs even better than OptiFine. It is a modern rendering engine for Minecraft that significantly enhances framerates and eliminates micro-stutter. It also resolves graphical problems as well.

No extra setup is required, as Sodium will allow all supported optimizations on your system. It's generally stable, but upon encountering problems, it is advisable to modify video settings pertaining to performance and advanced features.

Sodium provides smooth lighting for fluids, smooth biome bending, load chunks, and other optimization settings.

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3) Rubidium

Visuals after using Rubidium mod (Image via Mojang Studios)

Rubidium is a variance of sodium that bears a resemblance to OptiFine. This mod is designed to enhance your game's speed and optimize for smoother gameplay. For those using low-end PCs or laptops, Rubidium is highly recommended.

As described, it is an unofficial version of the Sodium mod specifically adapted for the Forge mod loader. You will notice the UI of the options menu has been changed, giving you a nice new look in the game.

You can also have Rubidium Extra installed, which includes features not in Sodium's default version. You will get additional tabs in the options menu, such as animations, particles, details, render, and extras. You will also have the feature of fine-tuning various aspects with these tabs.

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4) Lithium

Lithium is another optimization mod designed for Minecraft, with a broad range of enhancements targeting various systems such as game physics, mobs, and rendering blocks. Its primary objective is to improve these systems without altering any of the core mechanics in the game's vanilla version.

Lithium works seamlessly on both the client and server sides. This allows the mod to be installed in the server exclusively, helping clients access it. Lithium can enable or disable patches and eliminate bugs.

Since it preserves the vanilla Minecraft experience, Lithium is suitable for any of the game's servers using the Fabric platform, even those with highly complex gameplay scenes and creation.

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5) Chunk Progression

Visuals after using the chunk pre-generator tool (Image via Mojang Studios)

This tool enhances the efficiency of generating your Minecraft world by pre-generating chunks in advance. It is a server-side tool that also offers optional client features. It can be utilized in both multiplayer and single-player modes.

You will get many features post-installing, such as multi-world generation, multi-thread world generation, improved chunk generation checks, efficient memory management, dimensional control, dimension-specific seeds, and more.

This tool implements optimized methods for checking chunks significantly faster than normal. It also manages memory usage and detects any memory leaks related to Minecraft.

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6) Vulkan

Visuals after installing Vulkan mod (Image via Mojang Studios)

Vulkan is an open-source graphics API designed to deliver a streamlined, high-performance interface to modern GPUs. This mod revolutionizes the Minecraft experience for those seeking to optimize their game's performance. It significantly boosts FPS, enabling smoother gameplay and higher framerates.

It rewrites the Minecraft OpenGL renderer to utilize the Vulkan API. The mod's primary objective is to improve the game's overall performance. Players with AMD GPUs are known for heavily relying on this mod.

The community believes that if the rendering engine is rewritten in Vulkan, the game will perform much smoother than it currently does in OpenGL.

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7) Iris Shaders

OptiFine used to be the only one that supported the shader packs in Minecraft. That changed with the arrival of Iris Shaders, an open-source tool that does not limit modifications.

The code is freely accessible, and users are encouraged to change the Iris Loader. Iris Shaders is recommended for mid-range PCs when you want to play Minecraft with Shaders installed. You will have to combine this with Sodium which will optimize the rendering of the blocks.

Iris and Sodium provide excellent frame rates, and with moderate Shaders, there aren't too many performance issues. However, if you want to use high-end mods, it will impact the game's performance.

One drawback is that it's incompatible with several old mods and shader packs and does not allow adjusting the shaders according to your preferences.