The short version: On October 23, 2026, NVIDIA released RTX Remix for Minecraft, a free beta Fabric mod that renders Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.1 with real-time path tracing on GeForce RTX graphics cards. You need Windows 10 or 11, an RTX 30-series card or newer, and NVIDIA driver 616.92+. An installer sets up everything else. The source code is on GitHub under Apache 2.0, and community ports for Minecraft 26.3 are already in testing.
- FreeOpen source, Apache 2.0
- RTX 30+Minimum GeForce card
- 1.21.1Official target version
- 16 GBSystem RAM recommended
What is RTX Remix for Minecraft?
It’s a Fabric mod that captures terrain, entities, particles, the sky and clouds from the game and hands them to NVIDIA’s RTX Remix runtime, which renders the whole scene path traced. That’s different from a shader pack. Shaders approximate lighting inside Minecraft’s own renderer, while path tracing simulates how light actually bounces, so you get proper global illumination, soft shadows and reflections.
The release comes in three parts:
- The mod, in beta. Press F8 to turn path tracing on or off.
- RTX Remix Materials, NVIDIA’s 64x texture pack with normal, specular and subsurface maps (LabPBR) for more than 600 textures, so leaves, wool and ice let light through.
- A showcase world built by BlockWorks and tuned for path tracing.
System requirements
| Requirement | Needed |
|---|---|
| Graphics card | GeForce RTX 30-series or newer |
| Driver | NVIDIA 616.92 or newer |
| Operating system | Windows 10 or 11 (x64 or ARM64) |
| Memory | 16 GB recommended |
| Disk | About 5 GB free while installing, about 3 GB afterwards |
| Game | Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.1 on a Microsoft account that owns it |
No AMD, Intel Arc or macOS support. It’s an RTX-only feature.
How to install it
- Download the latest release from NVIDIA’s GitHub page. A CurseForge version, “RTX Remix Renderer”, is also available.
- Extract the archive and run
install.bat. It installs Java 21, Fabric and the RTX Remix runtime for you. - Launch the NVIDIA RTX Remix for Minecraft profile from your launcher, and start with the showcase world to see it at its best.
Does it work with Minecraft 26.3?
Not officially. NVIDIA’s mod targets 1.21.1 only, and its README invites the community to port it. They already have. Several community forks on GitHub now target Minecraft 26.3 (Java 25, Fabric Loader 0.20.1). One adds a physically based sky and can path trace Distant Horizons terrain beyond your render distance. These are unofficial alpha and beta builds, so expect bugs, and back up your worlds.
Is it worth it? The catches
- It’s a showcase beta. NVIDIA says blocks, mobs and dimensions outside the demo world have had less tuning and some will look wrong or run slowly.
- It may clash with other mods. Anything that changes rendering or chunk loading, such as Sodium, Iris or shader packs, is likely to conflict. Use a separate profile.
- The look divides players. Reaction is mixed. Many Java players say they’ll stick with shader packs, and much of the criticism is about NVIDIA’s showcase textures rather than the lighting. Because the mod supports LabPBR packs, swapping in your favourite PBR pack changes the look completely.
Want more FPS rather than better light? See our guide to the best performance mods. To check whether your PC is ready for Java’s move to Vulkan, see the Java system requirements.
