Despite the simplistic-looking graphics of Minecraft, be aware that the game can put a strain on your computer, affecting the game's performance. Apparently, Minecraft is somewhat processor and RAM intensive. As with most games, the bigger/newer, the better, however, we are running Minecraft on somewhat low-end desktop PC's in Pender County.
We are using Dell Optiplex 330 computers. These include an integrated (not ideal) Intel G31/G33 graphics chipset, a dual-core processor, and 2GB of RAM. Initially, the framerate of the game on default settings was pretty low. So, we're running with the following settings: Graphics=Fast, Render Distance=Normal, Smooth Lighting=Off. The other settings are default as seen below.
This is giving us an average framerate between 10 and 20. Not ideal, but usable.
One thing that was necessary was to be sure that Java and our graphics drivers were up-to-date. Our original graphics drivers caused errors and the game would not launch.
After additional testing, it seems that the number one factor affecting the game's performance is your Render Distance setting. Setting it to "Short" from "Normal" made a huge difference in performance. Settings such as "Fancy Graphics" and "Smooth Lighting" seemed to have little impact, comparatively.
Other tips:
- Close as many other processes as you can.
- Make the Java process associated with the game a priority process.
- Apparently, on laptops with a power-saving mode, disabling that increases performance.