How to Configure Lithium with Sodium

Introduction – Why Use Lithium with the Sodium Mod?

If you're a Minecraft player using the popular Sodium mod for better performance, you might be wondering how to configure Lithium with Sodium to push your FPS even higher.

Both Sodium and Lithium are Fabric mods designed to optimize Minecraft, and when combined on Minecraft 1.21.5 they can dramatically improve your game's smoothness.

This guide will walk you through everything a beginner needs to know – from installing the mods on Fabric to tweaking settings and understanding compatibility with other mods like Iris shaders and OptiFine.

By the end, you'll have a Minecraft 1.21.5 setup that runs faster and stays compatible with your favorite enhancements.

What Are the Sodium and Lithium Mods?

Minecraft's performance can slow down due to how the game handles graphics and game logic. Sodium and Lithium are two separate mods that target these areas for optimization.

Sodium in a Nutshell (Rendering Performance)

Sodium is a client-side optimization mod that replaces Minecraft's rendering engine with a more efficient version. In essence, Sodium focuses on graphics and frame rendering. Installing Sodium can lead to massive FPS gains – players often report going from choppy gameplay to silky smooth visuals. For example, one test showed a jump from ~35 FPS to over 400 FPS just by adding Sodium at high render distance.

By default, Sodium doesn't require any fancy setup: it automatically enables all compatible optimizations for your GPU and PC hardware.

This means you can drop it in and immediately enjoy higher frame rates, reduced micro-stutters, and a snappier feel to the game.

Another big plus is that Sodium maintains vanilla visual quality – your game will look the same, just run much faster.

It's also widely compatible with other Fabric mods (Sodium won't break most mods, which is a common issue with older solutions like OptiFine).

Lithium in a Nutshell (Game Logic Optimization)

While Sodium tackles graphics, Lithium optimizes Minecraft's game logic.

This includes the behind-the-scenes computations like mob AI, physics (collisions, redstone tick updates), chunk loading, and other server-side tasks.

Lithium can be used both on the client and server, and it doesn't change any gameplay mechanics – meaning your worlds and game rules remain vanilla, but everything runs faster.

Players often see a noticeable boost: Lithium alone can yield an instant performance increase of over 40% in many cases.

For single-player, remember that Minecraft internally runs a server for your world; Lithium streamlines that "integrated server" so your CPU spends less time on mundane tasks and more on delivering high FPS.

On multiplayer servers, Lithium is famous for improving TPS (ticks per second), helping servers handle more entities and chunks loaded without lag.

For example, huge mob farms or complex redstone machines will cause less lag with Lithium installed.

The best part: like Sodium, Lithium is a no-brainer to install and works out-of-the-box – all its optimizations are enabled by default and don't need manual configuration in most cases.

It's even officially allowed in speedrunning because it doesn't alter game mechanics, just performance.

Preparing Minecraft 1.21.5 for Fabric Mods

Before installing Sodium and Lithium, you need to set up the Fabric mod loader for Minecraft 1.21.5.

Fabric is a lightweight modding platform that both of these mods require. Here's how to get your game ready:

Installing the Fabric Loader and API

To use Sodium, Lithium, and other Fabric mods, first install the Fabric Loader for Minecraft 1.21.5.

You can download the Fabric installer from the official Fabric website. Run the installer, and make sure to select Minecraft 1.21.5 and your profile.

Fabric will create a new game profile in your launcher. Once that's done, it's wise to also add the Fabric API mod to your mods folder.

Fabric API is a library that many Fabric mods use to work. Interestingly, Lithium and Sodium themselves do not require Fabric API to run.

However, plenty of other mods (and sometimes Iris) depend on it. Having Fabric API (make sure it's the version for 1.21.5) in your mods folder ensures compatibility if you add more mods later.

Sourcing the Right Mod Versions (1.21.5 Compatibility)

Mods are version-specific, so you'll need the Sodium and Lithium versions that match Minecraft 1.21.5.

Thankfully, both mods are actively updated for new Minecraft releases. Download the Sodium 1.21.5 mod file and Lithium 1.21.5 mod file from a reputable source.

The safest sources are the official pages on our website or CurseForge. For example, our website has a Lithium download tagged for "Minecraft 1.21.x".

Avoid random websites that bundle mods with installers; stick to official sources to prevent malware or outdated versions.

When downloading, double-check: are you grabbing the Fabric version (not Forge, if a Forge port exists)?

For Sodium and Lithium, Fabric is the primary mod loader, but Lithium also has a NeoForge version – be sure to get the Fabric/Jar version for simplicity.

The filename often includes the Minecraft version and the mod version (e.g., sodium-fabric-mc1.21.5-xyz.jar).

Step-by-Step: Installing Sodium and Lithium

With Fabric installed and your mod files downloaded, installing Sodium and Lithium is straightforward.

Downloading Sodium and Lithium Safely

If you haven't already, download the latest versions of Sodium and Lithium for Minecraft 1.21.5. Here's a quick recap of where to get them:

Sodium mod – available on our website and CurseForge. Our website page even notes that once Fabric is installed, you can "simply place Sodium into your mods folder like anything else".

Lithium mod – available on our website and CurseForge as well. It's often a good idea to read the description; Lithium's page mentions no other mods are required and you don't even need to create new worlds – it will speed up existing worlds once added.

Make sure the files you download correspond to Fabric 1.21.5. You might see multiple files (Lithium has a file for Fabric, and possibly a separate one for NeoForge).

Grab the Fabric one. The file names should clearly include 1.21.5.

Save these .jar files to your Downloads or a folder you'll remember.

Installing the Mods (Mods Folder Setup)

Now it's time to install. If you've run Minecraft with Fabric at least once, a mods folder will exist.

If not, you can create one yourself. Locate your .minecraft/mods folder:

On Windows, press Win + R, type %appdata%\.minecraft\mods, and hit Enter. On Mac, open Finder and go to ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/mods.

On Linux, it's ~/.minecraft/mods. This is the folder where Minecraft looks for mod files when using Fabric.

Simply drag and drop the sodium-x.jar and lithium-x.jar files into the mods folder. That's it – the mods are "installed."

If you also downloaded Fabric API (recommended), put its jar file in the mods folder too.

The same goes for any other complementary mods (for instance, some players also add Indium – an addon needed for mods that use Fabric's rendering API with Sodium).

When the game loads up, you can confirm the mods are running in a couple of ways.

The simplest is to go to Options → Video Settings… If Sodium is installed correctly, you'll see a completely new Video Settings menu with a search bar and many more toggles.

You might also notice the Minecraft title screen FPS is much higher than usual.

For Lithium, there isn't an in-game menu, but you can check the logs or just observe improved performance.

Good practice: Always run Minecraft once after adding new mods to ensure they load without errors.

Configuring Sodium's Video Settings

Optimal Sodium Settings for Maximum FPS

One of the advantages of Sodium is that it comes with an improved Video Settings UI in Minecraft.

You'll notice all your graphics options in one place, plus some new ones. Out-of-the-box, Sodium is already optimized – it automatically enables its best settings for your system.

However, you still have control over Minecraft's usual graphics settings (and a few extra) to fine-tune performance vs. quality to your liking.

When you go to Options > Video Settings after installing Sodium, the menu looks different from vanilla. You'll have categories or a search function to quickly find settings.

Render Distance & Simulation Distance: These are the biggest factors in performance.

Sodium doesn't change how these work (it just makes rendering more efficient), so if you need more FPS, consider lowering render distance a bit.

However, thanks to Sodium, you might be able to raise it higher than before and still get good FPS.

For instance, if you could barely handle 8 chunks without mods, with Sodium you might handle 16 chunks smoothly.

Graphics Settings (Fast vs Fancy): Sodium retains Minecraft's Fast and Fancy graphics toggles (for things like clouds, leaves, etc.).

If you had these on Fancy before, keep in mind they'll still cost some FPS. Using Fast can significantly boost frames, especially on lower-end GPUs.

The difference with Sodium is that even Fancy graphics run faster than they would under vanilla's engine.

Smooth Lighting and Biome Blend: These affect how lighting and color transitions render.

Lowering or disabling them can improve FPS. With Sodium, you might be able to use Smooth Lighting without as heavy a hit.

But if you're chasing every frame, turning Smooth Lighting off and Biome Blend to a low value (or 0) can help.

VSync and FPS Caps: Sodium adds better frame pacing, so it's often recommended to turn VSync off (unless you have screen tearing issues).

Set your max FPS to a value your system can handle. For example, if you get 200 FPS with Sodium but your monitor is 60Hz, you might cap at 60 or 120.

Sodium's performance means you'll often hit high frame rates, so using the FPS limiter can keep your GPU from running maxed out all the time.

Sodium Extras (if installed): There's an optional addon called Sodium Extra that can expose even more settings – like chunk update threads, advanced anisotropic filtering, etc.

For beginners, you don't need to worry about these. But if you have them, each setting will usually have a tooltip explaining the performance impact.

The great thing about Sodium is you "probably don't need to" tweak much to get benefits.

Most players will find that simply installing it gives a huge boost. You can then adjust vanilla settings as usual to balance looks vs. speed.

One unique feature: Sodium's video settings screen has a search bar – if you're hunting for, say, the Mipmap levels option, you can type and find it quickly.

This quality-of-life improvement makes configuring Minecraft graphics less of a hassle.

In summary, configure Sodium by treating it as an enhanced version of the normal video settings. Lower settings for more FPS, or try higher settings than you could use before.

Configuring Lithium – Default Settings vs Tweaks

Understanding Lithium's Configuration File

Unlike Sodium, Lithium has no in-game GUI. It runs its optimizations in the background.

Fortunately, Lithium's default settings are already optimal for most users. The developers deliberately enable all safe performance improvements by default.

In fact, many players never touch Lithium's config at all, and that's perfectly fine (and recommended if you're not sure what a particular tweak does).

However, Lithium does offer a configuration file for advanced control. If you're curious or need to troubleshoot a compatibility issue, it's useful to know how this config works.

Lithium uses a "semi-unusual" configuration system. When you run Minecraft with Lithium the first time, it generates a config file in the config folder.

The file is often named lithium.properties or a .json/.toml depending on version. If you open this file with a text editor, you'll see various toggles (true/false) under categories.

Each toggle corresponds to a specific optimization patch that Lithium applies. For example, Lithium might have options like use_fast_block_light or ai_tick_optimizations.

By default, all these are set to true (enabled), unless a particular change could be risky. The Lithium wiki on GitHub provides details on each config option.

The key thing to note is that an empty config file means defaults are used. The mod devs mention that having an empty file is "perfectly normal".

If you open the file and it's blank or minimal, don't worry – Lithium doesn't list all options there unless you change them.

Lithium's config exists mainly so that if one of its optimizations accidentally causes an issue with another mod, you can turn that one off.

Think of it as a safety valve. For instance, some mod conflicts can be solved by disabling specific Lithium optimizations in the config.

When (and When Not) to Change Lithium's Settings

For the average player: do not worry about changing Lithium's config. Let it do its job.

Lithium's philosophy is to avoid altering vanilla mechanics, so most patches won't be noticeable except that the game runs faster.

Unless you encounter a specific bug and you've traced it to Lithium, you shouldn't need to touch the config.

All the major optimizations (mob AI, physics, chunk ticking, etc.) are vetted by the developers to be safe and beneficial to keep on.

However, let's say you're an advanced user or you installed another mod that seems to conflict.

If a certain mod that also optimizes something is not working well alongside Lithium, you could experiment by toggling off the related Lithium optimization.

Each config entry usually has a comment explaining what it does. If you set a value to false, Lithium will skip that particular change.

This can "completely eliminate bugs or mod incompatibilities introduced by the mod" as the Lithium documentation notes.

In Fabric, you might rarely need such a tweak, but one hypothetical case – if you had a mod altering mob AI in a heavy way, you could try toggling Lithium's AI optimizations off.

Again, these cases are uncommon. In summary, don't edit Lithium's config unless you know why.

Running on defaults gives the "best performance the mod can offer". It's one of those things that's available for edge cases.

If you are curious, feel free to open the file and read through – it can be interesting to see what categories of changes are there.

Combining Lithium, Sodium, and Other Performance Mods

Phosphor/Starlight for Lighting Optimization

Now that you have Sodium and Lithium configured, know that they are part of a larger family of Fabric mods that supercharge Minecraft's performance.

Running Sodium and Lithium together already covers rendering and game logic, but there are a few other areas you can optimize with additional lightweight mods.

They're all compatible with Sodium/Lithium, and you can simply add them to your mods folder just like you did with the other two.

Phosphor is a Fabric mod (by the same CaffeineMC team) that optimizes Minecraft's lighting engine.

In vanilla, lighting calculations (for torches, skylight, etc., especially during chunk generation) can be painfully slow. Phosphor rewrites that part of the code to be much faster without changing the look of lighting.

If you're on Minecraft 1.21.5, you might see references recommending Starlight instead – Starlight is another lighting mod which is actually even more aggressive in optimizing light updates.

It's worth noting that as of Minecraft 1.20+, the game's own lighting engine got some improvements (Mojang incorporated ideas that reduce the need for these mods somewhat).

However, many players still use Starlight on 1.21.5 for maximum performance, particularly on servers or when doing a lot of chunk generation.

The good news is both Phosphor and Starlight are compatible with Sodium and Lithium (choose one of the two, you generally don't run both at once).

In fact, the Lithium developers explicitly encourage installing Phosphor alongside – "Sodium optimizes rendering, Phosphor rewrites the lighting engine, and both are fully supported with Lithium."

If you decide to add one, I'd lean towards Starlight on modern versions; it's a bit newer and often cited as slightly faster.

But Phosphor is also effective and might have more stable builds for 1.21.5. Either way, by adding this, you've covered the "lighting" aspect of the game.

This means faster world load times, less lag when exploring caves or new areas, and fewer random frame drops due to lighting updates.

Additional Fabric Mods for FPS Boost (Krypton, etc.)

Beyond the big three (Sodium, Lithium, Phosphor/Starlight), there are a few smaller mods you might consider to squeeze out extra performance or quality of life:

Krypton: This mod optimizes the network handling of Minecraft. It's more about server networking and packet processing.

Using Krypton on a client can slightly reduce lag spikes related to networking, and on a server it can improve player connection handling.

It's safe to use alongside Lithium and Sodium (different focus areas).

LazyDFU: This mod delays the initialization of Minecraft's DataFixerUpper (DFU) system, which can significantly speed up game startup times.

It doesn't directly affect FPS, but you'll get into the world faster. It works with Fabric 1.21.5 and is a simple drop-in mod.

Hydrogen: An experimental mod by JellySquid meant to reduce memory usage. It was available for earlier versions, and if a 1.21.5 version exists, it could help if you're memory-limited.

However, use with caution as it's more experimental and sometimes less prioritized. It's fine with Lithium/Sodium in concept (targets different aspects – memory allocation).

Entity Culling and FerriteCore: These are two mods that also complement performance.

EntityCulling skips rendering entities that are not visible (e.g., behind walls) which can boost FPS when lots of mobs or items are around.

FerriteCore reduces memory usage of world chunks and objects (often used on both Fabric and Forge). Both are generally compatible with Sodium.

Indium (for mod compatibility): If you plan to use other Fabric mods that add new graphical effects or GUIs, you might need Indium.

Indium is not a performance mod per se, but an addon that re-enables the Fabric Rendering API which Sodium by itself doesn't support.

Some Fabric mods use that rendering API for their visuals; installing Indium ensures those mods work correctly with Sodium.

Indium is only needed on the client, and only if you use such mods (one common one is the "Continuity" mod for connected textures).

For a pure performance setup with just Lithium/Sodium and no decorative mods, you don't need Indium.

But I mention it because many players eventually add a few mods that might need it (like a minimap mod, for instance).

There's even a term in the community – the "Sodium stack" or "Fabric performance suite" – which includes Sodium, Lithium, Starlight, Krypton, LazyDFU, FerriteCore, etc.

If you install all of them, you'll likely find Minecraft 1.21.5 runs significantly smoother than vanilla.

Just keep track of them and update when you update Minecraft to avoid conflicts.

One more thing: these mods do not drastically alter gameplay, so you can add them gradually.

If you are wary, try Sodium+Lithium first (the biggest gains), then later add a lighting mod, etc., verifying each time that things run well.

Using Iris Shaders with Sodium (Shader Support)

Installing Iris for Shaders on Sodium

Many players switch to Sodium from OptiFine and wonder, "How can I get shaders now that OptiFine is gone?" The answer is Iris.

Iris is a Fabric mod that provides support for custom shader packs while working hand-in-hand with Sodium.

In fact, Iris + Sodium is the Fabric equivalent of OptiFine (even better in performance in many cases), giving you beautiful shaders and great FPS simultaneously.

To use shaders on Minecraft with Sodium, download the Iris Shaders mod (often just called "Iris").

Iris typically comes bundled with Sodium or at least expects Sodium to be present. If you download Iris from its official site, you'll get a jar that includes Sodium or as a dependency.

For our setup, since you already installed Sodium, adding Iris will simply leverage the Sodium you have.

Make sure you grab Iris for Minecraft 1.21.5 (and Fabric). Once downloaded, drop the iris.jar into your mods folder alongside Sodium and Lithium.

Also, keep Indium in mind: some shader packs or mod interactions might require Indium as well, because Iris also interacts with rendering.

If you run into any weird rendering issues after adding Iris, adding Indium mod usually fixes them.

The first time, Iris might generate a shaderpacks folder in your Minecraft directory.

Using Iris is simple: place your shader pack zip files into the shaderpacks folder (the same packs you'd use for OptiFine, like SEUS, BSL, Sildurs, etc., are compatible).

Then in-game, go to Options → Video Settings → Shader Packs and you'll be able to select your shader.

Iris's interface will let you toggle shaders on and off and even customize some shader settings.

The beauty of Iris is that it was built with Sodium compatibility in mind from the ground up. It "allows you to use OptiFine shader packs, while also running Sodium".

Tips for Shader Performance with Sodium/Lithium

Running shaders is still a heavy task, but Sodium helps a lot by optimizing the rest of the rendering pipeline.

With Iris + Sodium, you'll generally get a higher frame rate with shaders than you would have with OptiFine. However, to get the best experience:

Use Lithium and other performance mods too: They won't interfere with Iris; in fact, Lithium can boost your frame rates with shaders.

It's all about removing other bottlenecks so that your system can focus on the shader rendering.

Adjust shader settings: Many shader packs have quality presets (Low/Medium/High/Ultra) or options like shadow resolution, bloom intensity, etc.

If you find a shader is a bit slow, try lowering some of its settings. Iris usually has a "Shader Settings" button when you select a pack.

Because you have Sodium, you could also try increasing your base game FPS (e.g., lowering render distance a notch) to give headroom for the shaders.

Compatibility with texture packs: Using high-resolution resource packs plus shaders is the most demanding combination.

Sodium will help with performance here, but be mindful that 256× textures + shaders might still tax even a good PC.

It's all about balance – you can likely run a 128× pack with shaders smoothly thanks to Sodium's optimizations.

Troubleshooting Iris: If you installed Iris and the game crashes or won't start, double-check that you have the matching Sodium version it expects.

Typically, using the latest of both works. Also ensure you didn't accidentally grab an Iris for an older MC version.

If some shaders aren't appearing correctly, add Indium mod – it fixes most rendering issues by providing the Fabric Rendering API.

OptiFine is its own thing and Sodium replaces core parts that OptiFine also replaces, so they clash.

The point of Iris is to eliminate the need for OptiFine entirely for shaders.

Using Iris with Sodium and Lithium, you'll find you can have a gorgeous Minecraft (shadows, volumetric lighting, waving grass) and maintain smooth frame rates.

Many players report that this combination even outperforms OptiFine in both looks and performance.

Sodium & Lithium vs. OptiFine – Compatibility and Differences

Why OptiFine Doesn't Work with Sodium

It's important to address how this new setup (Fabric with Sodium/Lithium, plus Iris) differs from the old all-in-one solution, OptiFine.

Many players are used to OptiFine for performance and graphics, but as Minecraft has evolved, OptiFine has become less ideal for a modded environment.

Incompatibility: First and foremost, Sodium and OptiFine cannot be used together. They both change the Minecraft rendering engine in conflicting ways, so you have to pick one or the other.

For Fabric users, that choice is usually easy – Sodium provides better performance gains and is modular. OptiFine is built for Forge/vanilla and doesn't play nice with Fabric's ecosystem.

Performance: Sodium+Lithium (with our other mods) generally outperforms OptiFine in pure FPS terms.

OptiFine was revolutionary back in the day, but it's a jack-of-all-trades mod (it tries to do everything in one package).

Sodium and Lithium, on the other hand, are laser-focused on specific areas and are open-source with many contributors.

For example, metrics from Iris's Discord and others have shown multiple times higher frame rates going from OptiFine to Sodium+Iris.

Lithium's server-side boosts have no equivalent in OptiFine at all (OptiFine doesn't improve mob AI or tick times, it's mostly client/rendering focused).

Replacing OptiFine Features (Shaders, Zoom, Textures)

OptiFine isn't just performance; it also added handy features like Zoom, Dynamic Lights, and custom texture support.

When switching to Sodium and Lithium, you'll want to replace these with separate Fabric mods (this is the modular approach – "pick and choose" features).

The good news: almost every OptiFine feature has an alternative:

Shaders: replaced by Iris (as we covered). Iris + Sodium lets you use nearly all shader packs.

Zoom: There are multiple lightweight Fabric mods for zoom. Two popular ones are Logical Zoom and WI Zoom.

The all-in-one Sodium Extra mod includes a zoom too. They give you that smooth zoom key functionality just like OptiFine's zoom (sometimes even better, with configurable zoom levels).

Dynamic Lights: OptiFine would let dropped torches or held torches emit light. For Fabric, install LambDynamicLights.

It works with Sodium and provides the same effect. Walk around with a lantern or throw one on the ground and it will light the area.

Connected Textures & Custom Item Textures (CIT): If you use resource packs that rely on OptiFine for connected textures, get Continuity and CIT Resewn.

These mods re-enable those capabilities on Fabric. Note: Continuity will require Indium (because connected textures use the Fabric rendering API).

Once added, your OptiFine-designed resource packs will work with connected glass, etc., under Sodium.

Better Grass, Better Snow: OptiFine had minor features where grass blocks would have the side texture for seamless grass, etc.

There's a mod called Enhanced Block Entities and others for those small aesthetics. But many resource packs now do those seamlessly without needing a mod.

Performance/tweaks: OptiFine had a lot of toggles for things like lazy chunk loading, fast math, etc.

Many of those improvements are either built into Sodium/Lithium or available as separate mods. For instance, Smooth Boot optimizes JVM arguments for better startup.

Memory improvements we covered (FerriteCore, etc.) cover what OptiFine's "preallocate memory" did. The Fabric community has essentially picked apart OptiFine's features and recreated them in a more flexible way.

Stability and Compatibility: One downside of OptiFine's monolithic nature is that it can conflict with other mods.

Even on Forge, many modpacks recommend not using OptiFine because it doesn't cooperate well. In Fabric, Sodium+Lithium are designed to be friendly.

You've already added several mods with no trouble. If a mod doesn't explicitly support OptiFine, it will likely still work with Sodium.

Also, because we can individually disable any Lithium patches if needed, you have a safety net for compatibility.

With OptiFine, you either use it or you don't – there's no way to turn off just specific parts. This flexibility makes maintaining a modded setup easier.

You get to choose exactly what features you want and you often get better performance.

The only thing you truly "lose" is the convenience of one-click OptiFine installation. But as we saw, installing these Fabric mods isn't too difficult, and the payoff is worth it.

Your game runs faster, looks just as good (if not better with modern shaders), and you're future-proofed since these mods update quickly with the community's support.

So, embrace the Fabric ecosystem – many players have made the switch and rarely look back.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Mod Conflicts, Crashes, and Fixes

Even with everything set up correctly, you might run into a few hiccups or have questions as you play with Sodium and Lithium. Let's address some common issues and how to fix them:

Minecraft won't launch or crashes on startup: If the game fails to start after adding Sodium/Lithium, the first step is to check your mod versions.

Ensure that the versions of Sodium, Lithium (and Fabric API, Iris, etc. if present) are all for Minecraft 1.21.5.

A crash report can hint if a mod is for the wrong version (look for errors mentioning a mixin failing or a class not found).

Also, verify you're launching the Fabric installation (in the launcher) and not the vanilla profile by accident.

If you updated Minecraft, you'll need to update the mods too – for example, a Lithium 1.21.4 might not work on 1.21.5.

Another thing to check: if you added Indium, make sure it matches Sodium's version (Indium is tied to the current Sodium's version of the rendering API).

When in doubt, update all mods to latest or temporarily remove all mods except Sodium and Lithium to see if just those two run fine.

Lower FPS than expected or no improvement: In the unlikely case you're not seeing any FPS boost, a few things to consider:

Did you accidentally leave another conflicting mod or settings on? (For example, if you somehow still had OptiFine or OptiFabric also in mods folder – remove those.) If you're switching from OptiFine, check out our detailed migration guide for proper setup.

Check that Sodium is actually active – you should see the Sodium video settings menu. If it's not there, Sodium might not have been loaded at all.

Another factor: graphics driver issues. Sodium relies on your GPU's OpenGL; ensure your GPU drivers are up to date.

Outdated drivers can hamper performance or even cause graphical glitches. Also, if you had tweaked JVM arguments or used something like Badlion client before, ensure nothing is capping your performance externally.

Visual glitches (missing textures, transparent blocks, etc.): A common one is if you see some textures not rendering (e.g., chest or shulker box looks invisible from certain angles).

This is often because some mod (like a minimap or world map) uses the Fabric rendering API which Sodium doesn't support by default.

The fix is to install Indium mod as mentioned. Indium restores compatibility with the Fabric Rendering API.

Similarly, for connected textures not working (glass, etc.), ensure you installed Continuity and Indium. Once the right addons are in place, these glitches vanish.

Can't find or change a particular setting: As we covered, Sodium's new menu might take getting used to.

If you can't find a familiar setting, note that Sodium's menu sometimes hides non-graphics settings. For instance, some users note confusion adjusting FOV because Sodium moves that to a different spot.

Use the search function in Sodium's settings or consult the mod's documentation. Most things are there, just reorganized.

Multiplayer/server issues: If you're playing on a server and something seems off (e.g., mobs behaving oddly or redstone acting strange), remember that Lithium on the client shouldn't affect server mechanics.

In general, Lithium doesn't alter mechanics, but in case of any perceived difference, it might be placebo or the server's performance being better!

Both Lithium and Sodium are client-side (Lithium has some client-side effects even when not on server), so you can use them on any server.

One note: If a server has plugins or anti-cheat that are very peculiar, mods could sometimes be flagged (rare for these, since they don't give unfair advantage).

Ensuring Maximum Performance (Dos and Don'ts)

Quick Takeaways

• Sodium optimizes graphics rendering, Lithium optimizes game logic – they work perfectly together
• Both mods are designed to work out-of-the-box with minimal configuration needed
• Fabric Loader is required for both mods
• Iris provides shader support when using Sodium
• OptiFine and Sodium cannot be used together
• Additional mods like Starlight and FerriteCore can provide even more performance gains
• Always download from official sources and use the correct versions for your Minecraft installation

Conclusion and Next Steps

Configuring Lithium with Sodium gives you a powerful combination that can transform your Minecraft 1.21.5 experience.

By following this guide, you should now have both mods installed and configured for optimal performance.

The beauty of this setup is that it requires minimal ongoing maintenance – both mods work automatically in the background to deliver better FPS and smoother gameplay.

If you want to take your setup even further, consider adding complementary mods like Iris for shaders, Starlight for lighting optimization, or any of the other performance mods mentioned in this guide.

The modular nature of Fabric means you can customize your performance setup to match your specific needs and hardware.

Remember to keep your mods updated as new Minecraft versions are released, and don't hesitate to experiment with different combinations to find what works best for your setup.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)