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Sodium

Sodium - the number one optimization mod

Minecraft's rendering engine, rewritten from scratch. 2-5x more FPS, no changes to how the game looks and over 235 million downloads on Modrinth.

Optimization Fabric NeoForge MC 1.16.3 - 26.3

What is Sodium?

Sodium is a mod that replaces Minecraft's entire rendering engine with a modern one written from scratch. The vanilla renderer was built over a decade ago and wastes the potential of today's graphics cards. Sodium fixes that without changing anything about how the game looks. No new blocks, no new effects, just the same pixels drawn several times faster.

It's made by jellysquid3 from the CaffeineMC team, the same group that created Lithium (game logic optimization). The mod is free, open source and has over 235 million downloads on Modrinth alone (as of October 2026). In 2026, Sodium, not OptiFine, is the default choice for players looking for performance.

Sodium started out as a Fabric-only mod, but since version 0.6.0 it also officially supports NeoForge. Supported game versions range from MC 1.16.3 to the latest releases with year-based numbering (26.x), and updates usually come out within a few days of a new Minecraft version.

As of October 2026, the current line is Sodium 0.9.x. Version mc26.3-0.9.2 from September 15, 2026 supports Minecraft 26.3, and the 0.9.3-alpha.1 test build came out on September 20. Since version 0.9.0-beta.1 from June 11, 2026, Sodium's video settings have an experimental Graphics API option that lets you run the game on Vulkan. In the 26.4 snapshots, Vulkan is already the default graphics API of the game itself (details in our news post about snapshot 1), but Sodium doesn't have a 26.4 version yet.

Visual effect mods build on Sodium too. Shine requires Sodium and adds auroras, rainbows and a new End sky without a shader pack.

How much FPS does Sodium give you?

A typical result is 2-5x more frames per second than the unmodded game. Counterintuitively, you'll see the biggest jump on weaker hardware: a laptop that barely holds 25-30 FPS in vanilla can reach 80-120 FPS with Sodium. Powerful computers get a clear boost too, especially at high render distances.

Where does the difference come from? Several things at once:

  • Multithreaded chunk building - vanilla builds the world's geometry mostly on a single CPU core, while Sodium spreads that work across all of them.
  • A modern graphics pipeline - the renderer uses techniques that Minecraft's old code never knew about and makes better use of your graphics card.
  • Smart culling - the game doesn't waste time drawing blocks you can't see anyway.
  • Fewer micro-stutters - better memory management smooths out the familiar "hitches" when new chunks load.
Tip: Sodium works best as part of a set. Add Lithium (game logic optimization) and FerriteCore (lower RAM usage), and you have a complete performance package. You'll find the full guide in our article on how to increase FPS.

Sodium vs OptiFine

The most common question is whether Sodium replaces OptiFine. For performance, yes, and then some. Sodium regularly beats OptiFine in benchmarks, and it also gets updated for new game versions faster. There is a difference in philosophy, though: OptiFine is an all-in-one package (optimization + shaders + zoom + connected textures in a single file), while Sodium does one thing, rendering, and does it best.

OptiFine's other features are taken over by specialized mods: Iris handles shaders, Zoomify gives you zoom, Continuity adds connected textures and LambDynamicLights adds dynamic lighting. The end result is the same, except it runs faster and doesn't break compatibility with other mods. Conflicts with other mods were OptiFine's biggest problem for years.

One thing is certain: Sodium and OptiFine can't run together. Both mods replace the same rendering engine. Pick one, and if you play on current versions, pick Sodium.

How to install Sodium

  1. Install a loader: Fabric from fabricmc.net (we have a separate Fabric installation guide) or NeoForge from neoforged.net.
  2. Download Sodium from Modrinth, picking the file that matches your MC version and loader.
  3. Drop the .jar file into the .minecraft/mods/ folder.
  4. Launch the game with the loader profile. You'll find the new options under Video Settings: Sodium replaces the whole video settings screen with its own, much more detailed one.

Sodium doesn't need any extra libraries: one file and you're done. If you want shaders, add Iris to the same folder; it's designed specifically to work with Sodium.

FAQ

How much FPS does Sodium give you?

Usually 2-5x more than vanilla. On weaker computers the jump tends to be the biggest: from 25-30 FPS to over 100. On top of that, the micro-stutters when chunks load disappear.

Does Sodium work with OptiFine?

No. Both replace the same renderer, so they can't be used together. You can replace OptiFine's features with Sodium + Iris (shaders) + small mods for zoom and connected textures.

Does Sodium work on Forge?

Official support covers Fabric and NeoForge (since Sodium 0.6.0). On old Forge there were unofficial ports such as Embeddium, but on new versions of the game they're no longer needed.

Does Sodium change how the game looks?

No. The game looks exactly like vanilla, it just runs more smoothly. Sodium doesn't add shaders or effects; that's what Iris is for, and you install it alongside Sodium.