VBOs are a wonderful feature in Minecraft. For some users, it increases the game FPS and for others, it just freezes/crashes the game. Confusing, right?
This feature is mostly suitable for computers with a dedicated graphics card. As VBOs use the graphics memory instead of using the CPU and the RAM. The graphics feature VBOs has some benefits and limitations as well.
To clear things up, I’ll explain every necessary detail about VBOs including what this thing is, how it works, and whether you should enable it or not. So, make sure to give this article a good read to clear all your confusion.
What are VBOs in Minecraft?
VBOs is an OpenGL feature that stands for Vertical Buffer Object. Turning this feature on limits the rendering of the position, normal vector, color, and some other aspects of the world in Minecraft. Limiting this vertex data rendering helps your PC to save resources and results in providing higher FPS counts.
When VBOs are disabled in Minecraft, the game loads the whole world of Minecraft which isn’t that necessary while playing the game. And the game mostly uses your computer’s CPU and RAM to render these things. As a result, more of your PC’s resources will be in use and you’ll get less FPS than that when the VBOs are enabled.
Turning VBOs on in Minecraft allows the graphics card to take all the load by itself and the game renders only the specific parts that are visible to the player. So, there are zero compromises in the gameplay when you are turning this feature on. And the FPS gains are icing on the cake.
How to Enable/Disable VBOs in Minecraft?
Here are the steps to enable/disable VBOs in Minecraft:
- Press Esc while paying in any mode in Minecraft.
- Go to Options>Video Settings.
- Check if VBOs are turned On or Off on the Use VBOs button.
- Click on the Button Use VBOs: ON/OFF to enable/disable it.
- Clink in Done and your video settings will be saved.
Note: VBOs settings are removed from Minecraft 1.8.1 update.
Should I Turn ON VBOs in Minecraft?
Well, the answer is a variable. There is no doubt that VBOs are a great feature for gamers. But this feature won’t work perfectly with most computers. So, I have categorized the users into 3 types to make sure that you can relate to any one of them.
For Nvidia Graphics Card Users
As VBOs is an OpenGL Feature, it will work best with Nvidia graphics cards. If you have an Nvidia GPU that supports the latest OpenGL drivers, you’ll be good to go with enabling VBOs on Minecraft. Furthermore, you will have an instant FPS boost of 10-15% or more depending on your graphics card.
For AMD Graphics Card Users
To be honest, I’ll say that I’m an AMD GPU user but AMD’s OpenGL drivers and extensions aren’t that great. But you’ll get a decent performance upgrade if you are using the latest 6000 series graphics card or better. These graphics cards can handle the latest OpenGL features decently. In case you are using an older generation AMD GPU, then I’ll recommend you to disable VBOs on Minecraft as you won’t be getting the most out of your game instead of having some frequent FPS drops.
For Users Without Any Dedicated GPU
If you aren’t using a dedicated GPU then the scenery is quite different for you. I must mention that AMD APU and Intel iris, which is the integrated GPU of Intel CPUs, are not capable of using most of the OpenGL features like Anti-aliasing, Alpha Blending, Texture Mapping, Motion blur, VBOs, etc. So, if your PC doesn’t have a dedicated GPU, then you should disable VBOs on Minecraft for better performance. Otherwise, you may fall into trouble like Minecraft crashing, freezing, or stuttering frequently.
How to get higher FPS without using VBOs in Minecraft
VBOs provide surprisingly great results in gaming performance. But you can also get similar FPS gains by tweaking a few features which will act similar to VBOs.
In the Video settings of Minecraft, you will see three settings that are doing tasks similar to the VBOs feature. These settings are:
- Render Distance
- Simulation Distance
- Entity Distance
Decreasing the values in these settings helps in less rendering inside the game.
If I’m not using the VBOs feature, I generally keep the values of Render Distance & Simulation Distance to 16 Chunks which feels quite natural and useful. This lets the game render the elements and the simulation up to 16 chunks around you. You will see a white fog after the provided number of chunks after you set the value. 8 chunks make the things less visible. And 32 chunks might slow down your game as it’s a huge rendering. That’s why rendering to 16 chunks is a more suitable spot for most people.
And for the Entity Distance, 400-500% will hopefully do the job for you. Decreasing this percentage below 400% will show fewer entities like mobs and animals around you. And you will need to get closer to the entities to view them. As I like to see animals, bees, and mobs from far away, I set the Entity distance value to 500%. Decreasing all of these values tends to give a higher FPS without using the VBOs. So, these little tweaks can be a great alternative to VBOs.
Why is Minecraft Freezing after enabling VBOs?
VBOs can freeze/crash your game instantly or a few minutes after you have enabled the feature. This happens only if your computer isn’t capable enough to use this feature. VBOs require an OpenGL compatible dedicated GPU to run Minecraft Java Edition smoothly on your PC. If your PC doesn’t fulfill this requirement then it’s better not to use this feature at all. So, to be free from any future stutters, crashing, and freezing of your game you should turn VBOs off if it has already been doing so multiple times.
Final Words
VBOs are like a blessing to Nvidia graphics card users. It’s somewhat great on the latest AMD GPUs too. So, if your dedicated graphics card comes with a decent amount of GPU memory then you should definitely turn VBOs on in Minecraft to extract that extra 10~15% FPS from the game. And for the people playing Minecraft without any dedicated GPU, my recommendation is to avoid using this feature, or else it will be more trouble rather than a blessing.
