Minecraft CPU Benchmarks: Fabric 1.20.4 with Shaders
Test Information
Same as the Vanilla 1.20.4 test, this uses the same save file and pathing which attempts to simulate a start of a new 1.20.4 world with default world generation. It is the same basic landscape and the test primarily consists of sprinting up a hill and looking over the scenery, but this time with the Complementary Unbound shader pack loaded.
For test reproducibility, the area is pre-generated, so no world generation takes place.
The performance measurement begins immediately after the manually initiated chunk reload and ends with the video.
Most in-game settings were left at default. Render and shadow distance was set to 20 chunks.
Detailed Settings
If a setting option is not explicitly mentioned, it was left at the default value. The JVM settings are the same as what the official Minecraft launcher uses.
Java: 1.18 (18.0.2.1) JVM settings: -Xms512M -Xmx2G -XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions -XX:+UseG1GC -XX:G1NewSizePercent=20 -XX:G1ReservePercent=20 -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=50 -XX:G1HeapRegionSize=32M Render Distance: 20 chunks Max Shadow Distance: 20 chunks Max Framerate: Unlimited VSync: OFF Brightness: Bright Master Volume: 25% (Music: OFF) Mouse Sensitivity: 65 Auto-Jump: OFF Sprint Keybind: Q Drop Item Keybind: Left Alt Pick Block Keybind: ;Full mod list
- Fabric Loader 0.15.7
- Sodium 0.5.8
- Iris 1.6.17
- Complementary Unbound r5.1.1 at default settings
Performance Results
Minecraft - Fabric 1.20.4 (Sodium, Iris, Shaders)
2560x1440, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 (Driver 551.86), Average of 3 runs
Default settings, 20 chunk render distance, Complementary Unbound Shaders
"Fresh world landscape with typical exploratory chunk loading."
| Average FPS | 1% Low FPS | |
|---|---|---|
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D | ||
| AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D | ||
| Intel Core i7-12700KF | ||
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600 | ||
| AMD Ryzen 5 3600 | ||
| Intel Core i5-5675C | ||
| AMD Ryzen 5 2600 | ||
| Intel Core i5-4460 | ||
| AMD FX-8350 | ||
| Minecraft benchmarks by https://nemez.net | ||
The results may seem unexpected for readers unfamiliar with Minecraft shaders, but indeed the GeForce RTX 4070 is not fast enough at the tested 1440p resolution to let any of the newer CPUs stretch their legs (or cores?).
I intentionally included these results to show that if you plan to play with shaders, you certainly don't need a fast CPU to get the most out of your GPU. As even the older Ryzen 5 3600 was enough to almost
fully utilize the GeForce RTX 4070. And if you recall the results from the previous page about Vanilla 1.20.4, the Ryzen 5 5600 performs much better, so it should be perfectly fine to pair with even faster GPUs.
That being said, the 1% lows still go up drastically as you move to newer and faster CPUs, the game played far smoother on the Core i7-12700KF and Ryzen 7 5800X3D than the Ryzen 5 5600, despite rather similar average framerates. The Ryzen 9 7900X3D in the chart appears to underperform in this regard due to effectively being a 6-Core processor and Sodium pushing chunk loading onto more threads in a more effective way than Vanilla 1.20.4. It may be a 12-Core on the box, but due to the 3D V-Cache vs normal CCD split, it is more akin to two 6-Core CPUs with a scheduling policy that restricts games to either half of the CPU, but not the full thing.