FerriteCore vs VulkanMod

FerriteCore is a free, MIT-licensed coremod for Minecraft: Java Edition that targets RAM use. It reduces memory associated with block states, models, predicates, strings, voxel shapes and baked quads through a set of documented optimizations. Examples include replacing block-state neighbor tables with FastMaps, caching multipart model predicates, deduplicating model instances and reducing baked-quad memory. The project reports that individual techniques saved hundreds of megabytes in cited tests; one pack example showed post-garbage-collection memory moving from roughly 3.1 GB to 1.1–1.2 GB on the title screen. Several optimizations have no CPU impact during play, while some add load-time CPU cost. ThreadingDetector optimization is disabled by default because it may very rarely cause race conditions. FerriteCore supports Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt and is listed for Minecraft Java Edition versions 1.16.5 through 26.3, depending on loader builds. It is marked for both client and server use, and the maintainer recommends installing it on both because some optimizations apply server-side. Versions before 1.16 are not supported for backporting.

VulkanMod is a free Minecraft client mod that replaces the default OpenGL renderer with a Vulkan-based engine intended to improve performance. Its listed optimizations cover terrain rendering, chunk building and entities, alongside reduced CPU and GPU overhead. It also supports native Wayland on Linux and windowed fullscreen mode. Installation requires Fabric, followed by placing VulkanMod.jar in the .minecraft/mods folder, and a GPU with at least Vulkan 1.2 support. The project lists Minecraft versions 1.21.3, 1.21.4, 1.21.5, 1.21.10 and 1.21.11. Shader support is not available, and there is no estimated release date; the README points users to Beryl for shaders. Mods that use OpenGL calls are unsupported, including Sodium, Iris Shaders, Create and Distant Horizons. Release 0.6.0 notes a terrain-rendering improvement when backface culling is enabled, an update checker, and fixes for alpha cutout sampling and a memory leak.