The short version: On Fabric, start with Sodium for rendering, Lithium for game logic and FerriteCore for memory, then add ImmediatelyFast, Entity Culling and ModernFix. Add Iris only if you want shaders. Sodium and Lithium already support 26.3. If you use shaders on 26.2 or later, keep the game on OpenGL, because shader packs don’t run on the new Vulkan renderer yet.
The core stack
| Mod | What it speeds up | Side | Loaders |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sodium | Rendering: the biggest FPS gain | Client | Fabric, NeoForge |
| Lithium | Mob AI, physics, block ticks: better TPS | Client and server | Fabric, NeoForge, Forge |
| FerriteCore | Memory used by block states and models | Client and server | Fabric, NeoForge, Forge |
| ImmediatelyFast | HUD, text, particles and entity rendering | Client | Fabric, NeoForge |
| Entity Culling | Skips rendering entities and block entities you can’t see | Client | Fabric, NeoForge, Forge |
| ModernFix | Load times and assorted memory fixes | Client and server | Fabric, NeoForge, Forge |
| Iris | Shader support (requires Sodium) | Client | Fabric, NeoForge |
How to install without breaking anything
- Pick one loader (Fabric is the usual choice for performance) and match it to your exact Minecraft version. Loaders can’t be mixed.
- Install Fabric API if you’re on Fabric.
- Add mods one at a time: Sodium first, launch, then Lithium, then FerriteCore and the rest. If something crashes, you’ll know which mod caused it.
- Download only from Modrinth or CurseForge. Re-uploads on random sites are a common way malware spreads.
The Vulkan catch
Minecraft Java is moving from OpenGL to Vulkan, and 26.4 snapshots make Vulkan the default. Sodium 0.9 added early Vulkan support for 26.2. Shader packs, though, were written for OpenGL. If you use Iris shaders, set Options → Video → Graphics API to OpenGL until your shader setup says it supports Vulkan. If you play without shaders, Vulkan is worth trying. Press F3 to see which renderer you’re on. See our Java system requirements guide for what Vulkan 1.3 means for your GPU.
For servers
Client mods like Sodium do nothing for a server. Plugin servers should run Paper or a fork of it. Fabric servers benefit from Lithium, FerriteCore and ModernFix, plus Chunky to pre-generate the world so players don’t trigger chunk generation lag.
What about the extra mods?
Quality-of-life favourites such as Xaero’s Minimap and World Map or AppleSkin don’t add FPS, but they’re light and widely compatible, so they’re safe to stack on top of a performance setup.
