The Archive / Help & Setup / Performance & System Requirements
Help & Setup
Performance & System Requirements
Choose the right PotA visual profile, allocate memory sensibly and understand what hardware has actually been tested.
Choose your experience
PotA offers a full visual experience and a lighter profile for players who need to prioritise performance. The Lite profile avoids shaders and Distant Horizons. Both retain the modpack’s gameplay systems.
| Full experience | Lite experience | |
|---|---|---|
| Visual profile | Optional shaders and Distant Horizons | No shaders or Distant Horizons |
| Best for | A capable system, especially at high resolution | Lower-end hardware or players prioritising responsiveness |
| RAM allocated | Start around 10–12 GB on a 32 GB system | Start at 8 GB |
| Total system RAM | 32 GB recommended for comfortable headroom | 16 GB preferred for an 8 GB allocation |
| Storage | SSD recommended | SSD recommended |
Development hardware
PotA is developed and tested on the following PC. It is the reference configuration for the visual experience, not a guaranteed minimum requirement.
| Component | Development reference |
|---|---|
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 |
| Memory | 32 GB system RAM |
| Storage | SSD |
| Resolution | 2560 × 1440 (1440p) |
How much RAM should I allocate?
The launcher’s allocated RAM is not the same as the computer’s total memory. Windows, background applications, graphics drivers and the rest of the system need memory too. Allocate enough for the pack without starving the OS.
| System memory | Suggested starting allocation | Guidance |
|---|---|---|
| 16 GB | 8 GB | Prefer Lite; close heavy background apps. |
| 24 GB | 8–10 GB | Adjust based on measured usage and stutters. |
| 32 GB or more | 10–12 GB | Appropriate starting range for the full experience. |
What affects performance most?
- Render distance and chunk generation: Generating new terrain is more demanding than revisiting explored areas. Reduce view settings if frame times become unstable.
- Shaders: GPU-intensive effects such as volumetrics, reflections and complex lighting are optional and can have a large cost at 1440p.
- Distant Horizons: Adds distant terrain rendering and can increase GPU/CPU load depending on configuration and generation activity. Lite disables it.
- Loaded entities and structures: Busy settlements or encounters can affect CPU tick time even when the GPU has headroom.
- Memory pressure: Excessive RAM allocation or swapping to a slow disk may produce long pauses rather than better performance.
How to troubleshoot frame drops
- Start with Lite if the full preset runs poorly.
- Confirm the game is using the dedicated GPU on laptops and multi-GPU systems.
- Close browser tabs and other memory-intensive applications.
- Reduce shader quality, render distance or simulation distance one change at a time.
- Check whether the slowdown appears only while generating new chunks.
- If the problem persists, include your hardware details and logs when requesting help.
For the correct runtime, see Java & JVM Setup.