Memory issues in Minecraft lead to performance drops. Garbage collection problems often trigger lag spikes.
Memory issues in Minecraft lead to performance drops. Garbage collection problems often trigger lag spikes.
When I play Minecraft, everything runs smoothly at over 600 frames per second, even during chunk loading. However, during memory garbage collection, the game experiences a significant slowdown that’s quite bothersome. This issue has persisted for a long time, and I haven’t addressed it until recently. While I’m aware Minecraft’s Java code isn’t perfect, I don’t think it’s typical for the game to freeze briefly (which is quite noticeable). Here’s a screenshot of my setup: if you check the bottom left, everything appears normal when running normally, but on the right side you’ll notice the garbage collection phase.
My system specs are quite robust for the game:
- CPU: Intel i5-8400
- Cooler: ID-COOLING Sweden Series Red LED (Intel stock cooler)
- Motherboard: MSI B360 GAMING PLUS ATX
- RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4-2666mhz
- Storage: Kingston A400 120GB SSD (game runs from this drive)
- HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM
- GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB
- Case: Gamemax G561 Black
- PSU: SilverStone 650W Essential Gold
All temperatures and components are within normal ranges, confirming my system is healthy. The problem seems to stem from software rather than hardware. I’ve tried adjusting the RAM allocation, but it doesn’t resolve the issue. If anyone else faces this or has a solution, please let me know.
Confirming the activity is Minecraft, not Windows or another application.
It seems like the garbage collection process is interfering. I tried using Task Manager on my second monitor while playing the game, but it didn’t stop when it slowed down.
I might have mentioned it earlier, but I’ve already looked up solutions online. All the forum discussions I’ve seen before this one are similar.
Certainly, that could have spared me a lot of time. Alright.
I reinstalled the game and began playing with the standard 1.15.2 version, and the issue disappeared completely. I’m unsure why OptiFine was intended to enhance performance and smoothness in Minecraft.
Unusually, in 2024 version 1.21 I encountered a comparable problem. My game runs entirely in vanilla, without any optimization tools. I increased RAM from 2GB to 3GB, tried it but nothing changed, then checked a forum thread and reinstalling helped. I'm sharing this in case others facing the same issue discover this thread and achieve similar results. Minecraft trimmed to 720p.mov