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How to Reduce Lag and Speed Up Your Minecraft!

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yit63's Avatar yit63
Level 68 : High Grandmaster Technomancer
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~~~ NO LONGER UPDATED ~~~ RETIRED FROM PMC ~~~


*UPDATED 6-26-13*


Let's get started on reducing your lag in Minecraft!



If you don't have time to read the entire blog, skip to the end where I give the bottom lines of each tip.


You will learn:



  • Tons of helpful tips and tricks
  • TNT and redstone advice
  • Controlling your computero s performance and speed
  • Getting optimal performance without buying an expensive gaming computer (Alienware etc.)
  • Very helpful tips from fellow players




Io m assuming:


-You know your way around playing Minecraft and opening menus.


-You know how to open Control Panel and/or perform basic maintenance.


-You may know how to install mods.





Section 1 o Basic Settings


First off, these are some basic settings to reduce a decent portion of lag in Minecraft. The first thing you do when you just have a clean copy of Minecraft (no mods or shaders) is to go into your options. Press the Esc key on your keyboard (top left-hand corner) and it will open up the menu when you are ingame. In the main start screen, you should see a box labeled "Options". Click on options and choose video settings. You should see this in your screen (see image below):


--_png


Now change the graphics settings! (Click each of the boxes to change the settings!)


Graphics: Fast (Instead of fancy)


Smooth Lighting: Off (Turn it on when you are filming to make the lighting smoother)


3D Anaglyph: Off (This doesno t apply much to the lag but leave it off unless you want 3D viewing; requires red and blue 3D glasses)


GUI Scale: Preference (This also doesno t apply to lag but I chose Automatic)


Brightness: Preference (This is your choice but I choose Bright (max) so I can see more at night)


Particles: Minimal (This doesno t reduce as much lag but is still recommended) NOTE: Some redstone devices that use smoke or water particles will not work when you have this at minimal. (This shouldno t apply to you if you dono t use redstone).


Render Distance: Normal, Small, or Tiny (Changing it to the Far setting is only recommended if your computer can handle far rendering which allows you to see farther but increases lag. Short and Tiny settings reduce a lot of lag but dono t allow you to see as far and will lag a bit when you start to walk in unrendered areas.


Performance: Max FPS (This setting allows more frames to move = smoother and faster movement. But this setting uses more power (not too much). The other settings reduce the amount of frames per second (FPS) = a bit laggier but uses less power).


View Bobbing: Preference (This doesno t interfere with lag and just moves your character so ito s more realistic).


Advanced OpenGL: On/Off (This improves your FPS rate only if your graphics (video) card supports it. Choose the On setting, and test your FPS in a Minecraft world. Change the settings back and forth to see if turning it on or off makes a difference).


Clouds: Off (This removes clouds = less lag)


After changing all these settings, you should get this:


--_png





Section 2 o Difficulty Makes a Difference


The difficulty does matter when it comes to lag. Difficulty settings allow the spawning of mobs, easy (less spawning), hard (more spawning). The more mobs there are, the more lag there is. As long as your difficulty is on Peaceful, you should feel less lag. I know that some maps and playing Minecraft survival must be on Easy or harder so ignore this tip if you have set it to Hardcore or playing MC survival, or playing a map with mobs on it.





Section 3 o Controlling Your Computer


A typical day playing Minecraft (you can skip this part unless you want to read it; ito s not as important):


So ito s the weekend and you want to finish up your play-through of a map. You turn on your computer normally and open up Minecraft and a couple other programs. When you start playing Minecraft, it suddenly lags a lot. There are a couple reasons for this:


(You can start reading this part; ito s important)


1. Your computer is old

Click to reveal
This is often a problem for many users since their computer is older and cano t take all the o energyo from all the programs running. I recommend backing up any important files to an external hard drive (flash drive, heavy duty drive, or CD). Then, I would buy a standard computer (roughly $500-1000) and set it up. Leto s say you're a kid and you can't buy it. So just ask for it for your birthday or save up some $. I recommend computers with a substantial amount of RAM: 4 GB or more. Minecraft uses very little but adding more RAM can help. Then, add in all your files from your external drive and you're ready!




2. Your internet connection is slow or you have too many programs running at once

Situation 2
This is also a very common problem. If you know that your connection is slow, ask or call your ISP (Internet Service Provider) for an upgrade on your internet service. If you are a kid (and chances are that you are one), ignore this. Having too many programs running at once can also slow down your Minecraft. Having MS Word, Windows Task Manager, a YouTube video, and updating your computer all at once while playing Minecraft is not so good for smooth gameplay. Having one or two programs run at once is better and no programs running at once (except Minecraft) is the best.




3. You have too many programs installed or processes running (This is different than too many programs running at once)

Situation 3


Having tons of games or programs installed slows down your computer and Minecraft. If you plan on installing a bunch of programs from your computer make sure you follow these guidelines:

1.) Make sure you dono t use it anymore

2.) Google the program to make sure ito s not important for your computer to run

3.) Make sure anyone else does not use it (Shared computer between users)

If you dono t know if the program is important for your computer to run, ito s best not to uninstall it.

If you close a bunch of programs and uninstalled the programs you dono t need and still experience lag, restart your computer. You should also open Windows Task Manager and choose the Processes tab to check which processes are using the most power. Do not stop any needed processes for your computer to run.

png




4. Your computer is infected with a virus or malware


Situation 4
If you know your computer is infected with a virus, back-up any important files, change passwords for sites, and download/buy an Anti-Virus Program. If you dono t know if your computer is infected or not, download Lavasofto s anti-virus program (30-day trial) LINK or Avast Anti-Virus, another If your computer is relatively new (Windows 7) then you should have Norton Security (30-day trial) on your computer. Beware of unusual pop-ups and sites where they tell you that you have a virus. Also, do NOT use MyCleanPC.com since it installs a virus. However, buying an anti-virus program is easier since it does more and doesno t bother you (Your trial runs out in X days, buy o this programo now!).




Section 4 o Mods and How to Control Them


First off, you may have a couple mods installed already (TMI, SPC etc.) You are probably wondering: How does this improve my Minecraft? Well, having too many mods on Minecraft causes your Minecraft to take longer to open itself. There are a couple mods to control your performance. One is Single Player Commands. It has a o killallo command that eliminates entities such as mobs, paintings, minecarts, and tossed items. Warning: It will destroy those entities from your world so prepare if you see your paintings gone or your chicken farm deserted. An very, very good mod is Optifine. This mod increases FPS rate and decreases lag. It opens up a lot of graphics settings and render options for you to change such as particles, chunk updates and more.


OptiFine-HDjpg


Also, installing shaders causes a lot of lag. Shaders are good for cinematics but are horrible for normal gameplay and create lots of lag. Try to reduce using shaders unless needed or disable them. Installing HD texture fixes can also increase lag. When choosing a texture pack that has lots of detail (16x16 or larger), it takes longer for Minecraft to change every block and texture in Minecraft and also to render it.





Section 5 o TNT and Redstone Tips


This is very important for heavily redstone uses and TNT detonations. When TNT detonates, it breaks blocks and turns a portion of them into block entities. In the current update, same items will join together as "groupings" to reduce lag. Having tons of block entities (like 4000) will lag your computer and the explosions create lag as well. Reduce the lag by using the Single Player Command: drops. By disabling o dropso , items will not drop from TNT explosions and destroying them. As of the current Minecraft update, the command, "/gamerule doTileDrops false" will stop drops from blocks (such as TNT explosions). This also means that when you break a block in survival, it will not drop the block. Redstone contraptions can also lag your computer. Try reducing the amount of redstone and remove redstone clocks. Having redstone run at a certain time and then turned off is optimal for multiplayer servers and redstone-based mini-games. Use pistons to control the turn on/off of redstone clocks.





Section 6 o Other Tips


Turn off the Aero effect on PCs (Windows 7)


Disable screensavers, desktop effects, etc.


Allocate more RAM to Minecraft




Section 7 o Player Tips


You_Mine_I_Craft o If you have a higher-resolution texture pack, it will lag your game because of the detail and pixels it has to display. Using a lower resolution pack (16x16, 8x8, 4x4, 2x2) is better and increases your frame rate. The simpler the texture pack is, the more FPS you can obtain.


Noobkackboon o Optifine has two OpenGl modes: Fast, Slow, and Off. These modes can increase the FPS only if your graphics card supports OpenGL 2.0 or higher. Use CCleaner LINK to remove temporary files and browser history to speed up your computer. Use Windows Task Manager to o killo processes that use up the most energy (dono t kill the processes that the OS needs). Defragment your computer to speed it up. The more often you defragment it, the less time it takes. Dono t use Microsofto s defragmenter, ito s bad.


Dusty012 o In Optifine, go to video settings, then graphics and choose the graphics setting. Change it to o fasto .


Scotlickify o Allocate more RAM to Minecraft


IXLKIDDO - Install OptiFine Standard first, next install OptiFine Smooth (if smooth isn't out yet then use light), next install OptiFine Light (note if you installed OptiFine Light already in the previous step then skip this one), and last but not last install OptiFine Ultra if possible. Also install Fishtaco's FPS++ mod. LINK


Section 8 o The Bottom Line


Change your graphics settings down


Change your difficulty to stop hostile mobs from spawning to reduce lag


Make sure your computer is not old, is not infected with viruses, or running with too many programs at once


Use mods that you really need and install Optifine (compatible with most mods) and dono t install shaders (unless you need it)


Dono t use/place too much TNT and control the redstoning (dono t use redstone clocks too much)


Turn off the Aero effect and disable screensavers and desktop effects


Other Credit

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Update #10 : by yit63 06/19/2013 7:22:10 pmJun 19th, 2013

Re-edited photo
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More tips to be added + reduce lag additions
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1
09/18/2019 6:40 pm
Level 2 : Apprentice Miner
GraveDragon
GraveDragon's Avatar
thanks I really needed some help on Minecraft lag and you helped me! so thanks again ;)
1
07/20/2018 7:07 am
Level 1 : New Miner
MojangYang
MojangYang's Avatar
I want to blow up lots of tnt without lag
1
06/28/2018 7:02 am
Level 1 : New Miner
Dalmatianplayz
Dalmatianplayz's Avatar
the screenshots are not showing
1
06/02/2018 8:03 pm
Level 1 : New Miner
LuluDev61
LuluDev61's Avatar
I use only two mods (DecoCraft 2 & Chisel and Bits) and it's extremely laggy just loading in a regular world. It's even worse with a downloaded map. I also just got this computer, so what should I do? I don't want to get rid of these mods.
1
07/04/2017 2:49 am
Level 1 : New Miner
mrglitchyr
mrglitchyr's Avatar
change your in-game resolution to 1280x720 in the launcher settings!
this is a must if you are struggling with lag. I found this helpful
while i messing around with my launcher settings.
i tested with chocaphic 13 shaders and it work smoothly.
1
06/11/2017 1:26 pm
Level 3 : Apprentice Network
Danycraft98
Danycraft98's Avatar
This really worked. thanks for the great tip.
1
01/07/2017 3:26 am
Level 1 : New Miner
FishPL
FishPL's Avatar
Raw Minecraft - 900fps<
Minecraft + Continuum Shaders - 800fps<
Minecraft + Realistico resource pack (512x) - 800fps<
Minecraft + Continuum Shaders + Realistico resource pack (512x) - ...20fps (facepalm)
1
07/18/2016 2:12 am
Level 12 : Journeyman Engineer
Pixel_Builder
Pixel_Builder's Avatar
I've got all settings maxed and it doesn't lag because my computer... IS OP BUAHAHAHAHA!!!!
No, seriously, it has an i7 CPU and a pretty good nVidia graphics card, and it's a laptop!
1
07/07/2016 4:08 pm
Level 33 : Artisan Narwhal
WhaleTuba
WhaleTuba's Avatar
Answer to half of all the questions in this comment section: You need a new computer
1
07/23/2016 6:19 pm
Level 5 : Apprentice Miner
ploopy157
ploopy157's Avatar
Mabey you've forgotten, but minecraft is for kids and not every kid can afford to buy a new computer or get one for their birthday
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