Minecraft Optifine vs Sodium: Which one is better for FPS?

Minecraft has always been a blocky sandbox game with low-quality graphics, but everyone still loves it. The game has retained the same visuals for decades, with minimal updates to the textures made. Though the game can run on several budget-friendly systems, some older systems may struggle to maintain playable framerates. Players with such systems can use performance-enhancing mods to improve the framerates, frametimes, and other aspects that affect the smoothness of the gameplay.

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

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Minecraft performance mod comparison: Optifine vs Sodium

What are mods?

For those who are completely new to video games, mods are external programs or files that players install on their system to bring various forms of user-made changes to the game.

Over the past decade, the Minecraft community has released over 100,000 mods for Minecraft, making it one of the most customizable PC games ever. To install mods on Minecraft, players must use one of the two available mod loaders: Forge and Fabric.

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Optifine and Sodium Overview

Optifine and Sodium are two well-known mods that aim to improve the visuals and performance of the game in their own ways. Both of them are must-try mods for players looking to enhance performance.

Each mod comes with its own set of features and requires different mod loaders. Optifine requires users to install a Forge installation of Minecraft, whereas Sodium requires Fabric.

It is worth noting that neither of these mods brings any gameplay changes to Minecraft, but they optimize how certain things are rendered. Additionally, using shaders with them can bring more visual changes, but it may not be optimal for FPS (frames per second).

For players who enjoy trying different mods, Optifine is a better choice because Forge supports more mods than Fabric. However, if the player is solely focused on improving their game's smoothness and FPS, the comparison below will help them decide which mod is best for their needs.

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FPS Comparison

Optifine vs Sodium with default settings and 20 render distance (Image via Mojang)

While walking around in the new cherry groves biome in Minecraft version 1.20.1 with Optifine version HD U I5 pre7 and Sodium version 0.4.10, it was observed that Sodium was performing slightly better than Optifine on paper, but the difference wasn't noticeable.

However, while flying around in creative mode, Sodium provided significantly higher framerates than Optifine, making it the clear winner in this scenario. Though the difference in framerates may vary depending on the user's system, Sodium is likely to provide higher framerates in most cases.

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Shader FPS comparison

Optifine vs Sodium with Complementary Shaders (Image via Mojang)

Comparing the shader performance of the two mods may not seem ethical to some, as Sodium does not support shaders by default and requires the Iris Shader mod. However, since this is the only way for a Sodium user to use shaders, the comparison is worth it for those players.

Optifine is surprisingly much more playable with shaders, providing smoother rendering and slightly better FPS, even when flying around. On the other hand, Sodium drops quite a few frames while trying to render new chunks, causing an unpleasant experience.

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Conclusion

The choice between Optifine and Sodium will depend on your priorities. Optifine is better for those who want to use shaders and enjoy broad mod compatibility, while Sodium offers superior performance and higher framerates for smooth gameplay. Ultimately, both mods enhance the Minecraft experience, so the best choice depends on whether you prioritize visual effects or performance.