Essential Mods: Performance and Quality of Life
The stack most Java players install on day one. All free, all on Modrinth.
Sodium Fabric / NeoForge
Rewrites the rendering engine. The single biggest FPS boost in modded Minecraft - often 2-5x more frames, especially on older hardware.
Lithium Fabric / NeoForge
Server-side logic optimizations: faster mob AI, physics and tick handling. Free TPS on singleplayer and servers.
Iris Shaders Fabric / NeoForge
Runs shader packs with Sodium-level performance. The modern way to use shaders - replaces OptiFine for most players.
Fabric API Fabric
The library almost every Fabric mod needs. Not optional: install it first.
Mod Menu Fabric
Adds a Mods button to the main menu to see and configure everything you installed.
EMI or JEI Fabric / NeoForge
In-game recipe viewer: press R on any item to see its recipe, U for its uses. You will never alt-tab to a wiki again.
Jade (WAILA) Fabric / NeoForge
Shows what block or mob you are looking at, plus container contents without opening them.
AppleSkin Fabric / NeoForge
Shows hunger and saturation values on food and the HUD - know exactly what that golden carrot is worth.
FerriteCore Fabric / NeoForge
Cuts RAM usage significantly. Pair with Sodium and Lithium for the full performance stack.
Entity Culling Fabric / NeoForge
Skips rendering entities you cannot see. Big FPS win around farms and mob storage.
Distant Horizons Fabric / NeoForge
Renders far-away terrain as low-detail LODs: see hundreds of chunks without melting your PC. A generation-defining visual mod.
Xaero's Minimap + World Map Fabric / NeoForge
Clean, configurable minimap and full-screen world map with waypoints. The standard map solution.
What about OptiFine?
OptiFine was the classic all-in-one for years, but it updates slowly, breaks compatibility with many mods, and its performance features are now covered better by the Sodium stack. Most players have moved to Sodium + Iris. OptiFine is still fine for vanilla-only, single-player shader use if you already know it.