Watch the video:

0:00 - Explanation
0:30 - Open Fabric mods folder
0:50 - Download Fabric API (if missing)
1:16 - Download Sodium
1:35 - Download Lithium
1:48 - Download Phosphor
2:00 - Download Iris
2:10 - Download WI Zoom
2:35 - Install FPS optimization mods
2:50 - Launching Optimized Fabric 1.20
3:30 - FPS before (130 FPS)
3:40 - Optimizing Sodium & other FPS mods
4:20 - Fix OBS & laggy recordings
4:55 - Optimizing other tabs
5:24 - Checking default controls
5:51 - Zoom in Minecraft 1.20
6:02 - Optimized FPS (1,000+)

Fabric 1.20 Optimization

Let’s start by saying there’s tons of mods you could download for Fabric and this is by no means a complete list. I’d love to head of more mods that can improve the gameplay experience and game optimization further, so please do reach out via Discord and let me know!

This guide features a handful of long-loved mods that can really overhaul the vanilla experience much like Optifine, but way more powerful!

Downloads

There are a few mods we’ll be downloading:

and, of course, the Fabric API should you not already have it

And incase you don’t already have Fabric installed, download the Fabric installer here and see the install guide for 1.20 here

These are all names of elements, which is clever… except for Iris… and well… the other ones.

Installing optimization mods

The install is as simple as installing any other mods for Minecraft Fabric. You don’t double-click the jar files as you would OptiFine, instead open the following folder by pasting it into he Run dialog (open this by pressing Start+R - the Windows key and the R key as the same time).

%AppData%\.minecraft

You then need to open the mods folder, or create it if it does not exist.

Once the mods folder is open, move all of the optimization mods into there from your downloads folder.

Launch Fabric 1.20

Now you’re ready to launch Fabric 1.20 with all the mods installed. The game should already be running way better, but we can push it a little further.

Open a singleplayer world so you can see the difference as we work, pull up the pause screen with Escape and open Video Settings.

Optimize Fabric 1.20

Things look a little different from both vanilla Minecraft and even OptiFine.

General

On the General tab make sure VSync is turned off unless you’re getting screen tearing - where the top and bottom of your screen don’t match up and a tearing effect shows.

Raise the Max Framerate as high as it can go, or leave it on Unlimited if that’s already selected. If you see that OBS or other recording software is suffering because there is no more graphics card to go around, lower the Max Framerate to something a little lower than the actual FPS you’re getting ingame. You can check that with F3.

Render Distance has the biggest effect, and is hence at the top of the options menu. Shadow Distance should also have a noticable effect on FPS. Feel free to lower or raise these for more FPS, or further render distance, depending on your playstyle, preferences, etc.

In multiplayer the render distance is locked to 16 unless the server has raised it.

Everything else is your preference.

Speaking of preference: I always raise the Brightness to 100% so I can more easily see in caves without torches.

Quality

This tab is already optimized, but if you need more FPS you can change things around.

The Graphics can be set to Fancy or Fast, depending on how you like your trees looking mainly. The Fast setting gives you opaque tree leaves that you can’t see through, and Fancy gives you transparant.

Everything else is you preference, and can be lowered for a handful more FPS

Performance and Advanced

There is literally nothing you need to do here unless you KNOW what you’re doing. Everything is already the way that it should be.

Shader Packs…

These will destroy every bit of FPS you have, and will lead to serious drops, especially if you’ve downloaded a heavy shader pack.

Shader packs come with differences in performance impact, and some really tank your FPS, while some improve the general look and lighting of the game while leaving your FPS at reasonable numbers.

Keybinds

Finally, head back to the options menu, then Controls and Key Binds.

Scrolling down you’ll find WI Zoom with the Zoom key. Holding this in-game zooms you in like the OptiFine effect, but you can hold it and scroll up or down to zoom in and out. You can go insanely far! Letting go resets the value and you’ll always land at the default zoom level.

The Iris mod also has a few options such as R to reload the shaders, K to toggle shaders and more. These should be remembered if you’re playing around with the shaderpack options and trying to find what works best for yoou.

Final words

When recording this video I really went from an honest ~130 FPS to hovering around the 1,000 FPS mark. This is absolutely insane and the only reason I continue to suggest these 5 base mods, even though some take a little longer to reach the new updates after they are relased.

Hopefully all of them are up-to-date by the time you’re reading this and downloading these mods!