I recently upgraded from a GTX 1650 to an RX 9060 XT 16GB and expected a much larger performance increase in Minecraft with shaders. My system has a Ryzen 5 5600, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. I'm using Complementary Shaders Reimagined on the High preset with the Remarkably Optimized modpack at 1080p. I usually get around 130 FPS, while similar benchmark videos show more than 200 FPS. My GPU usage stays around 70–75%, even though the benchmark systems show roughly 95–99% utilization. CPU usage appears to be only about 20%. Could the Ryzen 5 5600 be limiting performance because Minecraft relies heavily on one or two CPU cores, or is there another setting—such as a frame limiter, V-Sync, RAM profile, or BIOS option—keeping the GPU from being fully utilized?
4 Answers
Overall CPU usage can be misleading in Minecraft. The game may be limited by one heavily loaded CPU core while the other cores remain mostly idle, so total CPU usage can look low even when the processor is the bottleneck. The Ryzen 5 5600 may simply not deliver the same shader performance as a newer CPU used in the benchmark. Check per-core usage and compare the exact resolution, render distance, shader settings, and game version.
Enable the correct memory profile in the BIOS, such as XMP or DOCP, so the RAM is running at its rated speed. You can also test Precision Boost Overdrive if your temperatures and motherboard support it. These probably won’t explain the entire gap, but slower memory or conservative CPU settings can affect Minecraft’s frame rate.
Benchmark comparisons need to be very exact. A video using a Ryzen 7 7800X3D or another newer gaming CPU can produce much higher Minecraft FPS even with the same graphics card. Render distance, simulation distance, shader options, world complexity, resolution, and the exact mod configuration can all make a large difference. The 9060 XT may be capable of more, but the game does not necessarily need to use 99% of the GPU when the CPU or engine is limiting frame delivery.
Before assuming it’s a hardware limitation, check for frame caps. V-Sync, the in-game FPS limit, or a driver-level frame-rate target can prevent the GPU from reaching high utilization. Driver updates can sometimes re-enable a frame limit, so make sure those settings are disabled or set above your monitor’s refresh rate.
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