Hello!
Here is an up-to-date list of NeoForge mods focused on optimizing Minecraft performance. The listed mods cover Minecraft versions up to 1.21.5, with a focus on recent versions (1.19.x, 1.20.1, 1.21.x). All mods listed are compatible with NeoForge (some also exist for Fabric/Forge, but are only included here if a NeoForge version is available). Each mod comes with a brief description of its purpose and the supported Minecraft versions. You can combine several of these mods to significantly improve client-side FPS as well as server-side performance (TPS).
General Optimizations (Server & CPU / TPS)
Adaptive Performance Tweaks
A modular suite that watches tick-time in real-time, then throttles AI, item despawns, hopper scans and more whenever the server threatens to dip below 20 TPS. Rules are fully configurable, letting you decide which systems should “slow down” first to keep gameplay fluent.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21 → 1.16
ServerCore
Bundles dozens of tiny patches: asynchronous chunk I/O and player log-ins, smarter mob caps, and a lag-spike smoother that shunts expensive tasks onto helper threads,particularly effective on 6-core+ CPUs.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21 → 1.17
Radium Reforged
A faithful port of Lithium’s game-logic rewrites: faster block updates, collision checks, random-tick pruning and mob AI paths,all without altering vanilla behaviour. Expect 20–40 % lower MSPT in real worlds.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21.1, 1.20.x, 1.16.5
Sepals
Cutting-edge AI scheduler that batches and defers non-critical mob tasks, slashing per-entity CPU time; on mob-farm stress-tests TPS rose from 12 → 19. Requires Architectury.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21.x
AI Improvements
Streamlines path-finding: fewer node expansions, cached goals and shorter re-path intervals. Servers with dense wildlife or large mob farms will see visibly steadier TPS.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21, 1.20.6 → 1.19
BadOptimizations
A grab-bag of micro-fixes,cancels redundant light-map uploads, caches sky-colour maths, skips pointless packet serialisations,each minor, but together worth several ms/tick in heavy packs.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21 → 1.19
Alternate Current
Completely rewrites redstone-dust propagation with a deterministic queue; massive contraptions tick in one pass instead of cascading 1000+ block updates.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21, 1.20.2
FastFurnace
Caches the last smelting recipe per furnace type and skips logic when inputs stay identical,auto-smelters no longer tank your MSPT.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21 → 1.20
FastWorkbench
Eliminates expensive per-slot scans when crafting; shift-clicking large stacks ceases to freeze clients and servers.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21 → 1.20
FastSuite
Extends the same caching logic to all JSON recipe types, not just furnaces or workbenches, speeding every datapack recipe lookup.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21, 1.20.1
Annuus
Re-implements Minecraft’s packet encoder/decoder with pooled buffers and Zstd compression; chunk-burst traffic shrinks and the networking thread stops spiking.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21.x
Smooth Chunk Save
Spreads the region-file writes of the auto-save across multiple ticks, preventing the hallmark 2–3 s “Saving World” pause every few minutes.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21 → 1.19
Concurrent Chunk Management Engine (C2ME)
Parallelises chunk generation, lighting and heightmap building across threads; exploration that once cut TPS in half now barely registers. Alpha but already stable on multi-core hosts.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21 (alpha)
Ksyxis
Removes always-loaded spawn chunks, freeing several hundred MB and constant tick overhead. A configurable radius lets you keep a tiny spawn area if needed.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21 → 1.8
Noisium
Optimises the noise sampler and block-state placement in the terrain generator: measured 20-30 % faster new-chunk creation without terrain changes.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21 → 1.19
Clumps
Merges nearby XP orbs so mob crushers or big mining bursts don’t spawn hundreds of tiny entities. Same total XP, far fewer ticks.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21 → 1.10
Let Me Despawn
Fixes vanilla’s edge-case where mobs holding items refuse to despawn, silently ballooning entity counts. The patch lets them vanish again after configurable timeouts.
Versions: NeoForge 1.20.x
Async Locator
Runs /locate, explorer-map and dolphin-treasure lookups asynchronously, ensuring those heavy world scans never freeze the main thread.
Versions: NeoForge 1.20.x (back-port)
ThreadTweak Reforged
Modern successor to Smooth Boot: re-prioritises loading threads, preventing 100 % CPU stalls during mod/plugin startup and smoothing TPS spikes caused by thread contention.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21 → 1.19
Starlight (NeoForge)
Complete light-engine rewrite that eliminates ghost-lighting bugs and makes block-light updates practically instant, huge for chunk gen or massive torch placements.
Versions: NeoForge 1.20.4
Get It Together, Drops!
Auto-merges nearby item entities the moment they appear, preventing TNT quarries or mob grinders from dumping thousands of independent items on the ground.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21 → 1.15
Chunky
Pregenerates chunks offline so players never trigger heavy terrain generation during gameplay, simple, but transformative for exploration-heavy servers.
Versions: NeoForge 1.20.6 (back-port)
Graphical Optimizations (Client & FPS)
Embeddium
Sodium’s multi-draw renderer ported to NeoForge: multithreaded chunk updates, modern OpenGL structs and aggressive face culling routinely double or triple FPS on CPU-bound systems.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21.4 → 1.16.5
Embeddium Extra
Adds OptiFine-style video toggles (animation sliders, fog density, sky colours) plus extra bug-fix culling, perfect companion for Embeddium.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21, 1.20
NeOculus
Unofficial NeoForge fork of Oculus/Iris: restores shader-pack support on top of Embeddium so players can enjoy SEUS, Complementary etc. while keeping Sodium-grade FPS.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21+
ImmediatelyFast
Optimises immediate-mode GL paths (HUD, maps, particles) by batching draw calls and re-using buffers, noticeable in GUI-heavy modpacks.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21 → 1.18
Entity Culling
Uses an async ray-tracer to skip rendering entities hidden behind blocks, boosting FPS in farms, bases and modded factories packed with tile-entities.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21.1 → 1.16
Cull Less Leaves
Implements “smart leaves” by hiding unseen leaf faces; jungles render up to 30 % faster with negligible visual change.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21.6 → 1.16
Vanillin
Builds on Flywheel to instance-render thousands of identical block-entities,64 k chests at > 250 FPS in dev tests, ideal for storage-heavy modpacks.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21.1, 1.20.1
ScalableLux
Modern replacement for Starlight on new versions: chunk-parallel light propagation and GPU-friendly skylight sampling; keeps both client frame-times and server MSPT steady during mass block updates.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21.x (beta)
Memory Optimizations
FerriteCore
Deduplicates block-state and model arrays, plus other large immutable data, saving hundreds of MB in big packs and reducing GC hitching.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21.6 → 1.16.5
Saturn
Tweaks byte-buffers, chunk-section allocation and caching strategies so Java’s allocator touches far less memory, great alongside FerriteCore.
Versions: NeoForge 1.20.6 → 1.16.5
AllTheLeaks (Memory Leak Fix)
Back-ports dozens of upstream leak patches; periodically scans weak/soft references to stop runaway RAM growth on long-running servers.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21.1, 1.20.1
Memory Leak Fix
Targets vanilla leaks missed by other mods (resource packs, particle engines) and pairs perfectly with FerriteCore for ultra-stable memory footprints.
Versions: NeoForge (through 1.19.4)
ModernFix
Speeds class-loading, parallelises resource loading, trims reflection spam and patches dozens of memory/regression bugs, results: packs launch up to 2× faster and need ~20 % less RAM.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21+, 1.20+
Helium (formerly Hydrogen Reforged)
Legacy but still useful on 1.16–1.18: pools frequently-allocated arrays and tweaks chunk NBT caching, shaving 200–300 MB from large worlds.
Versions: NeoForge 1.18.x → 1.16.5
LazyDFU
Defers DataFixerUpper initialisation until an old world is actually loaded, trimming both startup time and ~200 MB RAM on modern versions.
Versions: NeoForge 1.19.3 → 1.16.1
DataFixerSlayer
For fixed-version servers: disables DFU entirely, reclaiming yet more memory and further cutting load times, use only if you never open ancient worlds.
Version: NeoForge 1.16.5
Faster Startup and Loading
Smooth Boot Reloaded
Caps how many background threads Minecraft spawns during launch, stopping the 100 % CPU slam that freezes low-core PCs; overall load feels smoother even if seconds saved are modest.
Versions: NeoForge 1.20.x (Forge 1.18+ retro-back-port)
ThreadTweak Reforged
Adds an in-game config GUI to rebalance thread priorities after launch, handy for mod-pack devs profiling load hotspots. Works alongside Smooth Boot.
Versions: NeoForge 1.21.5 → 1.21.1
Fastload
Streamlines the “Joining World” pipeline by short-circuiting redundant checks: players reach spawn noticeably faster, and respawns no longer hitch on big servers.
Versions: NeoForge 1.20.1 → 1.18.2
[LazyDFU] and [ModernFix] (listed above) also shave 10–30 s off cold startups when combined with the mods in this section.
