Those who play Minecraft know exactly how intensive this simple game is. Despite the not-so-great graphics, the game demands quite some RAM. Also, if you are playing modded gameplay, the demand for RAM increases even more.
If you are new to Minecraft, you must know a little about it first. There are several editions to this popular game. Some of them are compatible with all platforms, while others are compatible with different gaming consoles and devices such as Oculus, Fire TV Stick, etc.
If you have been running Minecraft on your computer, you may have experienced an unexpected crash. When you are playing a multiplayer game with other players, who are using different platforms and devices, crashing, interruptions and stuttering are inevitable, especially in a ranked match.
This crashing is the result of the shortage of RAM, but you can easily allocate more RAM to the Minecraft game. However, before you can allocate RAM, it’s essential to check if you have any free RAM on your system.
How to Check the RAM Availability on your Windows System?
To check the available RAM on your PC, follow these steps:
- Click on the “Start” menu and then go to “Settings”.
- Go to the “System” settings and click on the “About” tab in the side menu.
- Go to “Device Specification” and click on “Installed RAM/Available Memory”.
- You will see the details displayed in a new message box.
Usually, Minecraft requires at least 2 GB RAM, but 4GB is recommended, and if you can spare more than that, well, it’s up to you.
How to Allocate RAM to Minecraft Launcher?
There are multiple ways to do this; you can allocate RAM through the default Minecraft Launcher, AT Launcher, or Curse Launcher. We will discuss each of them as follows:
1. Allocate RAM with Minecraft Launcher
Follow these steps to allocate RAM to Minecraft launcher:
- Open Minecraft launcher and select your game’s version, i.e. Minecraft Java Edition, Minecraft Bedrock Edition, Minecraft Xbox One Edition, and any other.
- On the top of the Tab, you will see “Installation Tab”. Click on it.
- A list of releases will drop down. Now hover your cursor over the version you want to play; three dots will appear on the right. Click on it.
- A new screen will appear, displaying the installation name, its version, and other settings. Click on “More Option” and scroll down. You will see “JVM Arguments”, and lots of code will appear. You have to find:
-Xmx2G
The 2GB at the end of the snippet signifies the amount of RAM. Change it to whatever amount of RAM you want to allocate to Minecraft. Say, you can write it like Xmx6G, allocating 6GB of RAM to Minecraft.
Note: You must decide the amount of RAM depending on what GB of RAM your system offers. That means, if you’re using a system which has only 2GB of RAM, you can allocate 1GB to Minecraft. Otherwise, you’ll never want your system to quit all other tasks, right?
- Now click on “Save”. Done! As you start playing, you will see how smoothly it runs.
In this way, you can allocate RAM to Minecraft. There are other ways as well. Let’s have a look at them too.
2. Allocate RAM with ATLauncher
If you have an ATLauncher for Minecraft, you are luckier because allocating RAM through ATLauncher is even easier. These are the steps that you need to follow:
- The first step is to launch the ATlauncher.
- You can see a menu on the right with “Settings” at the bottom of the launcher screen. Click on it and then go to the Java/ Minecraft tab on the top.
- You are allocating more RAM, so look at the second option from the top, which says “Maximum Memory/ RAM”. You can see the up and down arrows. It shows the amount of RAM with increments of 0.5 GB with every click. You can also type in the amount.
- Select the amount you wish to allocate and click “Save”. It’s done.
3. Allocate RAM with Twitch/Curse Launcher
The Twitch/Curse launcher also offers an easy way to allocate RAM to Minecraft. In addition, the Twitch launcher makes it easy to play various Minecraft mods. Follow these steps to allocate RAM through Twitch/Curse launcher:
- Go to the launcher. In the top-right corner, you will see the three lines marking a menu. Click on it, then go to “Files” and then “Settings”. The shortcut key combination to open Settings is CTRL+, (Comma).
- Now go to Minecraft, and scroll to the bottom. You will see “Java Settings” there. In this list, you will see “Allocated Memory”. There is a slider against it. Slide it and choose the amount of RAM that you want to allocate.
- Once you are finished, go back to Mods and select Minecraft.
Final Words
Allocating more RAM to Minecraft is easy. You may increase it as per the RAM availability of your system, of course. If you doubt whether you should allocate all RAM to Minecraft, the answer is no. Because your system needs RAM for other operations too. Allocating the entire memory to Minecraft will slow down your system.
4 GB memory is recommended for Minecraft usually as it is not a game with high graphics. 6 GB and 8 GB will be amazing, but only if you play in a Minecraft mod that requires such an amount of memory. Java Edition is cross-platform gameplay, which does require more RAM.
The steps cited above are simple, and your game will stop crashing and stuttering due to lack of RAM as you can easily allocate more memory to your Minecraft game if your system allows you to do so.