OptiFine or Sodium: which is better for FPS
How Sodium with Iris differs from OptiFine, which gives more frames, and how to get shaders and zoom without OptiFine.
For years OptiFine was the only way to raise FPS and use shaders. Today most players move to Sodium and Iris — here's why.
Comparison
- Performance. Sodium rewrites rendering from scratch and on most PCs gives noticeably more frames.
- Compatibility. Sodium and Iris are regular mods for Fabric, Quilt and NeoForge and get along with other mods.
- Shaders. Iris runs most popular shader packs.
- Updates. Sodium and Iris come to new game versions quickly.
What about zoom and dynamic lights?
There are separate mods for that: zoom (e.g. Zoomify), dynamic lighting (LambDynamicLights), connected textures (Continuity). All of them are in the Mods tab.
When OptiFine still makes sense
On old Forge versions without Sodium, OptiFine remains an option.
Download TCLauncher — it's free.
FAQ
Can I install OptiFine and Sodium together?
No, they conflict. Pick one — for new versions Sodium with Iris is better.
Do shaders work without OptiFine?
Yes, through Iris. It runs most shader packs made for OptiFine.