How to Fix Minecraft Lag and Boost FPS on Java and Bedrock

“Lag” means one of three different problems, and the fix depends on which one you have. Low FPS is your device struggling to draw the game: everything looks choppy, even in single-player. High ping is a slow connection to a server: blocks you break reappear, hits land late, other players teleport around. Low TPS is the server itself running slowly: everything happens in slow motion for every player. Work out which it is first, then use the matching section.

Step 1: which kind of lag?

• Choppy in single-player too? It’s FPS. On Java, press F3 and read the FPS number at the top left. Under about 30 feels rough.
• Only on one server, and only things that involve the server (breaking blocks, hitting mobs, opening chests)? It’s ping. Hover over the bars next to the server in your server list to see the ping in milliseconds.
• Everyone on the server complains, and mobs and crops move in slow motion? It’s the server’s TPS. That’s the server owner’s job; see the last section.

Fixing low FPS (biggest wins first)

1. Lower the render distance. It costs more than any other setting. Dropping from 16 to 8 chunks often doubles frame rate on weaker machines. On Java, also lower simulation distance, which controls how far away mobs, crops and redstone keep running.
2. Install Sodium (Java). It replaces the game’s rendering code and often gives a large FPS increase with no change to how the game looks or plays. It’s the first mod on our beginner mod list, and Lithium and FerriteCore help further on the logic and memory side.
3. Turn down the graphics options. On Java: Graphics to Fast, Smooth Lighting off, Clouds off, Particles to Decreased, Entity Shadows off. On Bedrock: turn off Fancy Graphics, Beautiful Skies and Fancy Leaves, and turn Vibrant Visuals off if your device supports it.
4. Remove heavy packs and shaders. High-resolution resource packs and shader packs are the most common reason a good PC struggles. Try without them, then pick a lighter preset; the shaders guide explains which settings cost most.
5. Use the right GPU and power mode. On laptops, plug in the charger, choose a high-performance power mode, and in Windows graphics settings set Minecraft (and javaw.exe on Java) to the dedicated GPU.
6. Update your graphics driver from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel.
7. Close what’s running in the background. Browsers with many tabs, recording software and other launchers all take CPU and memory.
8. Set memory sensibly (Java). In the launcher, edit the installation, open More Options and change -Xmx2G in the JVM arguments. Leave vanilla at 2 to 4 GB; give modpacks 4 to 8 GB. Never give it more than about half your system’s RAM.

If none of this helps, compare your hardware against the system requirements. Some older laptops and tablets simply can’t run recent versions smoothly; Bedrock usually runs better than Java on weak hardware.

Fixing high ping

Ping depends mostly on the physical distance between you and the server, and how your traffic gets there. Settings can’t make a far-away server close, but you can avoid making it worse:

• Use a wired connection if you can. If you’re on Wi-Fi, sit closer to the router and use the 5 GHz band.
• Stop downloads and streams on your network while you play. Uploads (cloud backups, video calls) hurt just as much.
• Restart your router if ping is suddenly much worse than usual.
• Pick servers near you. Most big networks host in North America and Europe. Players in South Asia generally get much better ping from servers in nearby regions. Our page on finding good servers from Bangladesh explains how to judge a server’s location and latency before you commit.
• Avoid VPNs and “game boosters” unless you’ve tested that they actually lower your ping. Most add a detour.

When the server is the problem (low TPS)

A Minecraft server runs at 20 ticks per second. When it can’t keep up, everything slows down for everyone. The usual causes are too many entities (huge animal pens, item piles, mob farms with no kill system), fast hopper and redstone clocks, and lots of loaded chunks from players spread far apart. On Java servers, operators can check with /tick query, which shows how long each tick takes. If you run the server, limit entity farms, use Paper instead of vanilla, and pre-generate the world. If you don’t, report it to the admins; nothing on your side will fix it.

If your problem is the game not starting at all rather than running slowly, see Minecraft won’t launch.