Optimizing Your Server Performance

Server performance is crucial for providing a smooth gameplay experience. This guide covers the best mods, plugins, and configuration settings to optimize your Minecraft server.

Performance Mods by Loader Type

Different mod loaders have specific optimization mods available. Choose the ones that match your server setup.

For Fabric Servers

If you're running a Fabric server or client, here are the essential performance mods:

Core Performance Mods

Sodium — Dramatically improves rendering performance
Lithium — Optimizes game logic and server-side operations
FerriteCore — Reduces RAM usage by optimizing how objects are stored in memory

Additional Optimization Mods

Entity Culling — Reduces rendering and ticking costs for entities
More Culling — Further reduces unnecessary rendering calculations
ImmediatelyFast — Speeds up chunk generation and loading
ModernFix — General memory fixes and improvements

Note: On newer Minecraft versions (1.20+), Starlight and Phosphor may be less necessary due to improved vanilla lighting engine changes.

For Forge / NeoForge Servers

Forge and NeoForge have their own set of performance-focused mods:

Core Performance Mods

Embeddium — Forge/NeoForge port of Sodium for excellent rendering performance
Radium / Canary — Provides Lithium-like logic optimizations for Forge

Additional Optimization Mods

FerriteCore — Same memory optimization benefits as the Fabric version
Entity Culling — Reduces entity rendering costs
ImmediatelyFast — Improves chunk loading speed
ModernFix — General performance and memory fixes

Mod Packs

Forge's Optimization Collection — A curated pack containing many performance-enhancing mods specifically for Forge and NeoForge servers

Paper Server Optimization

If you're running a Paper server (recommended for most vanilla and plugin-based servers), these configuration tweaks and plugins will significantly improve performance.

Server Configuration Tweaks

server.properties Settings

# Reduce view distance to decrease chunk loading
view-distance=8

# Limit simulation distance for entity/tick updates
simulation-distance=6

# Optimize network compression
network-compression-threshold=256

What these do:

view-distance=8 — Reduces how many chunks each player loads (lower = better performance)
simulation-distance=6 — Keeps entity and tick updates more localized
network-compression-threshold=256 — Reduces CPU load from networking

paper-world-defaults.yml Settings

# Optimize chunk saving
max-auto-save-chunks-per-tick: 6

# Use faster explosion calculations
optimize-explosions: true

# Reduce entity collision calculations
max-entity-collisions: 2

# Improve redstone efficiency
use-faster-eigencraft-redstone: true

# Better mob spawning distribution
per-player-mob-spawns: true

# Optimize hoppers (if no plugins need move events)
hopper:
  disable-move-event: true

Key benefits:

max-auto-save-chunks-per-tick: 6 — Slows down chunk saving to reduce tick lag
optimize-explosions: true — Uses Paper's faster explosion algorithm
max-entity-collisions: 2 — Reduces load when many entities collide (default is 8)
per-player-mob-spawns: true — Prevents one player from hogging all mob spawns
hopper.disable-move-event: true — Significantly improves hopper performance

spigot.yml / bukkit.yml Settings

Adjust entity-activation-range — Reduce the distance for animals, monsters, etc., to limit how far entities remain active
Reduce spawn-limits — Lower the maximum number of mobs that can spawn
Use Aikar's JVM Flags — Improves garbage collection and overall performance

Recommended Plugins

Essential Performance Tools

Spark — A powerful profiler and monitoring tool

Identifies performance bottlenecks
Shows where CPU time is being spent
Helps you make informed optimization decisions

FarmLimiter / FarmControl — Prevents lag from entity farms

Caps the number of entities in specific areas
Prevents massive mob farms from causing server lag
Keeps automatic farms under control

What to Avoid

Entity Cleaner Plugins (e.g., ClearLagg) — While tempting, these can be counterproductive:

They temporarily reduce lag but cause entities to respawn quickly
The constant respawning actually increases CPU usage
Better to use proper configuration limits instead

Important Warnings & Trade-Offs

⚠️ Mod Compatibility

Using too many optimization mods can break certain mod behaviors
Always test your full modpack before deploying to your live server
Some mods may conflict with each other

⚠️ Gameplay Impact

Aggressive Settings Can Change Gameplay:

Very aggressive culling may cause entities to despawn too quickly
Players might notice items or mobs disappearing unexpectedly
Balance performance gains with player experience

View & Simulation Distance:

Lower values improve performance but limit what players can see
May affect farm mechanics and redstone contraptions
Test these values to find the right balance for your server

⚠️ JVM Flags

Using incorrect JVM flags can actually harm performance
Always use tested, community-approved flag sets (like Aikar's)
Monitor your server after applying new flags
If performance gets worse, revert to default settings

Performance Optimization Workflow

Benchmark First — Use Spark to identify your current bottlenecks
Make Incremental Changes — Don't change everything at once
Test Thoroughly — Check if the changes improve performance without breaking gameplay
Monitor Results — Use Spark to verify improvements
Document Changes — Keep track of what you've changed in case you need to revert

Getting Help

If you're experiencing performance issues even after optimization:

Use Spark to generate a performance report
Open a support ticket on our Discord
Include your server specifications and the Spark report
Our team can help identify specific issues

Remember: optimization is about finding the right balance between performance and gameplay experience. What works for one server might not work for another, so always test and adjust based on your specific needs!