Why bother?
For older Minecraft versions, OptiFine was the way to make your game better, faster, and stronger through various useful features and optimizations. However, since Minecraft 1.16 there exist much better alternatives.
Detailed explanation
For a very long time, OptiFine was an essential mod that many enjoyed using as it offers important benefits such as performance improvements, extra quality of life features, and more. However, it also has its downsides:
-
OptiFine is closed-source. This means that no one can easily inspect its code, and it is much more difficult for developers to make their mods compatible with OptiFine - since they can't see what could be conflicting between their mod and OptiFine.
-
OptiFine sometimes takes a long time to update to newer Minecraft versions as there is only one developer working on the mod.
-
OptiFine functions as an "all-in-one" mod (similar to a modpack). This makes it impossible for the user to disable/fully remove features that may be incompatible with other mods or that they don't need.
In the past few years, various mods have been made to replace these features and offer a better experience for both mod developers and users. Most of them are open-source, updated faster due to community contributions and support, and allow you to remove features if they're incompatible with another mod or don't suit your preference. These will usually be available on Fabric and Quilt, with some of them natively supporting (or working through compatibility layers) Forge and/or NeoForge.
Installing things
To install mods and modpacks, see the Download mods and Download modpacks pages.
Fabric/Quilt Mods
Sodium
Sodium is a mod that greatly improves render performance through various rendering optimizations. We highly recommend installing it when possible.
If you use Sodium often, please consider supporting development of the mod by donating to the developer!
Lithium
Lithium is a mod that greatly improves render performance through various game logic optimizations. We highly recommend installing it when possible.
Iris
Iris allows you to use OptiFine shaderpacks, while also running Sodium. It currently supports almost every shaderpack, with some exceptions.
Indium
Indium is an addon for older Sodium versions that provides support for the Fabric Rendering API. This is needed if you want to use Sodium on Minecraft 1.20 or older with mods that use advanced rendering techniques.
Other Mods
If you would like to go a bit further, LambdAurora maintains a very detailed list of OptiFine alternatives for Fabric and Quilt. There's also a list of mods used by the Additive modpack, which provides the Minecraft versions that each mod supports along with some extra information.
Fabric/Quilt Modpacks
Fabulously Optimized
If you don't want to search and install these mods manually, then try the Fabulously Optimized modpack, which supports almost all OptiFine features.
See the installation instructions for Prism Launcher.
Simply Optimized
Simply Optimized is a modpack designed with just optimization in mind. SO has better out-of-the-box performance than Fabulously Optimized, but it doesn't come with the QoL mods or full OptiFine parity you would see in Fabulously Optimized, so you're expected to add any additional mods you want yourself.
Additive
Additive is a modpack similar to Fabulously Optimized which aims to support nearly all OptiFine features. It's based on Adrenaline for better performance, supports Fabric, and can be installed on a wide range of Minecraft versions.
Adrenaline
Adrenaline is a Fabric modpack which aims to improve performance as much as possible while not changing anything about the vanilla game and not introducing instability. Like Simply Optimized, it does not come with any OptiFine replacement mods, so you'll have to manually install the features that you want.
Forge/NeoForge Mods
Sodium for Forge
Sodium also exists for some Minecraft versions on Forge/NeoForge — see its support policy. We highly recommend installing it when possible.
Lithium for Forge
Lithium also exists for some Minecraft versions on Forge/NeoForge — see its support policy. We highly recommend installing it when possible.
Iris for Forge
Iris also generally exists for the same loaders/versions as Sodium.
While on some modpacks/with some mods they're going to work good, with others they might be very unstable so be well aware of what you're doing. If you have issues, use OptiFine.
You can use Sinytra Connector to run many Fabric mods on Forge.
Don't report issues with those on upstream's Discord support channels!
Embeddium
Embeddium is a Sodium port for Forge that focuses on compatibility with other Forge mods. We generally recommend using it instead of Rubidium. Be aware of the statements above before using it.
Oculus
Oculus is an Iris port for Forge. Be aware of the statements above before using it.
Radium
Radium is a Lithium port for Forge. Be aware of the statements above before using it.
Other mods
You can find a list of performance mods for Forge here.
Forge Modpacks
Hammer
Hammer is like the Adrenaline modpack but made for Forge, utilizing Forge ports of mods and Sinytra Connector to run Fabric/Quilt optimization mods.
Drill
Drill is the Additive modpack but made for Forge, utilizing Forge ports of mods and Sinytra Connector to run Fabric/Quilt optimization and OptiFine replacement mods.