Despite its low graphics style and relatively simplistic gameplay, Minecraft can be an application intensive. There’s a lot going on in the background, especially if you start experimenting with redstone assemblies.
If you add mods to the mix, the standard amount of RAM that Minecraft is supposed to run suddenly becomes insufficient. Without enough RAM, you will start to experience freezes, crashes, and other issues that make the game virtually unplayable.
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The good news is that it’s relatively easy to allocate more RAM to Minecraft Another good news is that there are several ways to do this.
Make sure you have RAM to spare
The first step is to find out exactly how much RAM your PC has. It’s simple.
- Click Start and select the Settings icon (it looks like a gear).
- Click “About”.
- Under Device Specifications, find Installed RAM The number next to it will tell you how much RAM you need to save.
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Minecraft requires a minimum of 2GB of RAM, although the recommended specs require 4GB. If you have more than this, you are golden. Now you can allocate all the RAM Minecraft needs to quench its thirst.
Method 1: allocate RAM from virtual drive
The original default Minecraft launcher has changed over the years, but you can still allocate more RAM for what Minecraft uses.
- Open Minecraft Launcher and select the version you want to play (Bedrock or Java).
- Select “Preferences” from the tabs at the top. You will see a list of episodes below, but if you haven’t configured any specific versions to play, you can only see the most recent version.
- Hover over it and click the three white dots to the right, then click Edit.
- You will see a screen with the installation name, version, and several other settings. Click Advanced Options and scroll down until you see JVM Arguments. This field will contain a lot of code, but all you need to worry about is the first snippet, which looks like this:
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-Xmx2G
- The number at the end is the amount of RAM that Minecraft is using. Change “2” to the amount of RAM you want to use in Minecraft
It’s okay to let it use all the RAM you have, but whether it actually takes advantage of full use depends on whether you have something else running and open in the background.
- After making the changes, click “Save” and start the game. You should immediately see the difference in performance.
Method 2: Allocate ATLauncher RAM
If you’ve downloaded mods or played Sky Factory a lot, then you’re probably familiar with ATLauncher for Minecraft ATLauncher makes allocating more RAM even easier than using the default launcher, especially since it means you don’t have to work with any code for this to happen.
- Start ATLauncher.
- On the right side of the launcher is a list of options. Select “Preferences” and then the “Java / Minecraft” tab at the top of the screen.
- There are several options to choose from, but the second one you are interested in is the maximum amount of memory / RAM You can enter the amount you want to highlight, but the easiest option is to click the up and down arrows. This increases or decreases the amount of allocated RAM in 0.5 GB increments.
- Once you have selected the amount of RAM you want to use, click Save. If you are playing a package with a lot of mods like SkyFactory, you will have to allocate more RAM or the game will not start. When testing Sky Factory 4 required at least 4 GB of RAM, otherwise errors occurred on startup.
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Method 3: Customize RAM using Twitch / Curse Launcher
You can also play various Minecraft mods (or regular Minecraft
- In the upper right corner, click the three lines, go to the Files section, and click Settings. You can also press CTRL + Comma in the launcher to open the settings menu.
- From there go to Minecraft and scroll down to the bottom of the screen. You will see a section titled Java Settings. Find the allocated memory and click the slider.
- By default, Sky Factory 4 provides 3228 MB of RAM You can move the slider left or right to allocate more or less RAM for the game. The slider increases or decreases RAM in 0.25 GB increments.
- Once you’ve moved the slider, you’re done. Go back to Mods, select Minecraft and launch your more efficient game. It is so simple.
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Allocating more RAM to Minecraft can (and in many cases will) improve the performance of Minecraft, but there are situations in which allocating too much RAM decreases overall system performance.
Other areas of your PC require RAM as well. While they won’t have much of an impact unless they are running concurrently with the game, it is often recommended to allocate at least 1GB of RAM for other non-game related processes.
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If you’ve changed your RAM settings but performance is still not as expected, or your computer reports an inaccurate amount of RAM, this could indicate other problems with your memory. It is recommended to check for bad memory from time to time.
The good news is that even if you have a problem with your RAM, replacing it is easy. In fact, if you want even more performance, it is worth considering purchasing additional RAM for your system, especially if memory prices continue to fall.
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