The Best Performance (and Quality-of-Life) Mods for Minecraft 1.21

This is the most up-to-date list of the mods that I personally use while playing Minecraft. From tripling performance to revamped menus, these mods improve your gameplay experience without changing vanilla gameplay.

If you see an ❌ next to a version (eg: "1.21.5 ❌"), that means that the mod is not updated for that version (as far as I know). If there is a ✔, it is updated. Sometimes, mods work for new versions but don't say it on the Modrinth page. If so, check my list to see if I tested it.

Why can't I download these all in one folder? Why do I have to download them all individually?

Not every mod is legally allowed to be distributed in modpacks. Some mods' license agreements say you can't include their mod in a modpack without explicit permission, and that really isn't worth it here. Plus, mods get outdated quickly, and, unlike in a proper modpack, it's important to keep all of these mods updated. So, I don't want to make a legally questionable ZIP file full of mods that will be outdated the next day. Downloading each mod individually is the best way to have the best in-game experience.

Notices and Resources

• Want my mod configs? Here you go
• I have listed required mods, meaning I've only listed mods that another mod will need for the game to start
• If you are using Sodium and you get a crash or weird bug that is caused by another mod, install Indium and that should hopefully fix it
• If you see a * next to a checkmark for a version, that means the mod is usable but may be a little bit broken
• Some mods will work on new versions, but won't necessarily tell you on the download page yet. Refer to my guides below to see if mods are updated
• If you get a crash any time you load a world or join a server, remove the Chat Patches mod. If that fixes it, add the mod back and then delete the file "chatlog.json" file in .minecraft\logs

You must install Fabric to run these mods

Don't know how? Watch my tutorial.

Mods

• 3D Skin Layers - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Makes the second layer of a skin render in 3D
• Better Ping Display - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ❌
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Changes player list (tab list) to show ping numbers instead of ping bars
• Better Statistics Screen - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Makes the in-game statistics screen beautiful
  • Requires Fabric API & TCDCommons API
• Capes - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Improves the Minecraft chat with features like longer chat history
  • Requires Fabric API & Fabric Language Kotlin
• Chat Patches - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Allows you to view your cape from mods like OptiFine
  • Requires Fabric API & YetAnotherConfigLib
• Concentration - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Makes your fullscreen window borderless
  • Requires Fabric API
• Concurrent Chunk Management Engine - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Performance mod
  • Improves the efficiency of chunk generation
• Continuity - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ❌
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Adds support for connected textures (like OptiFine)
  • Requires Fabric API
• Debugify - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Patches a bunch of unpatched bugs in vanilla Minecraft
  • Requires Fabric API
• Dynamic FPS - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Performance mod
  • Reduces your game's frame rate while you aren't focused on the window to save power and increase the performance of the rest of your computer
  • Requires Fabric API
• Enhanced Block Entities - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ❌
  • Performance mod
  • Changes blocks like chests and beds to use block models instead of entity models, which increases performance, but also allows for better custom textures and allows them to have smooth lighting
  • Requires Fabric API
• Entity Culling - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Performance mod
  • Makes the game not render entites you can't see to improve FPS
  • Requires Fabric API
• FerriteCore - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Performance mod
  • Reduces the game's memory usage
• Gamma Utils - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Adds in-game options to increase your game brightness above the normal limit, a.k.a fullbright
  • Requires Cloth Config API & Fabric API
• ImmediatelyFast - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Performance mod
  • Makes the game's FPS higher
• In-Game Account Switcher - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Allows you to switch between Minecraft account without restarting the game
  • Requires Fabric API
• Iris Shaders - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Adds support for shader packs, just like OptiFine
  • Requires Sodium
• kennytvs-epic-force-close-loading-screen-mod-for-fabric - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Closes the "Loading terrain" and resource pack switching screens faster
• Krypton - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Performance mod
  • Improves performance internally in magical ways
• Language Reload - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Adds a great-looking GUI for switching languages and makes switching them instantaneous
  • Requires Fabric API
• Lithium - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Performance mod
  • Improves performance of features like mob AI, game physics, and more internal stuff without changing vanilla gameplay
• Memory Leak Fix - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ❌ 1.21.5 ❌
  • Performance mod
  • Fixes memory leaks
• MiniHUD - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔ (1.20.6 and other old versions linked here)
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Adds a mini F3 menu that you can add your own information to
  • Requires MaLiLib
• Mod Menu - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Adds an in-game list of every loaded mod and allows you to configure the settings of mods
• Model Gap Fix - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Fixes the little pixel-wide gaps in items and blocks in the game
  • Requires Fabric API
• ModernFix - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ❌
  • Performance mod
  • Fixes bugs and mproves the resource usaage and framerate of the game in many ways
• More Culling - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Performance mod
  • Adds more culling to the Entity Culling mod
  • FPS testing in my 1.21 mods video was done without this mod installed as it wasn't updated yet
• No Chat Reports - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Removes signatures from your chat messages to make them unreportable and disables in-game telemetry (data collection)
• Nvidum - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ❌ 1.21.5 ❌ (unofficial 1.21.5 version available here]
  • Performance mod
  • Uses "NVIDIA OpenGL extensions" to drastically increase the performance of the game. Only works on NVIDIA 16xx, 20xx series and higher GPUs, the mod will auto-disable if you don't have the right GPU
  • Requires Sodium
• Reese's Sodium Options - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Reorganizes the Sodium mod's video settings menu
  • Requires Sodium
• Replay Mod - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ❌
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Allows for viewing of past in-game Minecraft sessions from a spectator POV and rendering of videos from this POV (very simplified explanation)
• Screenshot to Clipboard - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ❌
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Copies screenshots you take to your computer's clipboard so you don't have to dig through your computer to find them every time
• Sodium - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Performance mod
  • Improves your game's FPS by an order of magnitude
• WorldEdit - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Edit massive areas of terrain and make massive structures
• Zoomify - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Quality-of-life mod
  • Adds a customizable zoom key with versatile options
  • Requires Fabric API, Fabric Language Kotlin & YetAnotherConfigLib

Dependency Mods (you need these too)

• Cloth Config API - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Dependency mod
  • Required for a lot of mods to be configured
• Fabric API - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Dependency mod
  • Necessary for almost all Fabric mods to work
• Fabric Language Kotlin (works on any game version)
  • Dependency mod
  • Adds support for Kotlin programming language for mods to use
• Indium - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.1 ✔ (not necessary in Sodium 0.6 and above and Minecraft 1.21.3 and above)
  • Dependency mod
  • Makes Sodium compatible with the Fabric Rendering API, allowing a lot of previously incompatible mods to work with it
  • Requires Fabric API & Sodium
• MaLiLib - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔ (1.20.6 and other old versions linked here)
  • Dependency mod
  • Makes other mods by the author of this mod work
• TCDCommons API - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Dependency mod
  • An API for custom GUIs
  • Requires Fabric API
• YetAnotherConfigLib - 1.20.6 ✔ 1.21.4 ✔ 1.21.5 ✔
  • Dependency mod
  • Edit massive areas of terrain and make massive structures
  • Requires Fabric API

Different Types of Mods

• Performance
  • Performance mods make your game run better and smoother like increasing your frame rate or making chunks load faster
• Quality-of-life
  • Quality-of-life mods make the Minecraft experience better overall, like always displaying coordinates in game or copying screenshots to your computer's clipboard for easy access
• Dependency
  • Dependency mods are mods that are really only used to make other mods work, like how most mods require Fabric API to run, even though the mod doesn't do anything to the game on its own

Bonus mod (might not work because I have had some issues)

• Technopig
  • Makes pigs named Technoblade wear a crown. Fly high