Energy-conscious Minecrafters rejoice! In today’s Java Edition snapshot, we’re introducing a new Frames Per Second (FPS) limiter feature that reduces the framerate of Minecraft while the game is in certain idle states. The FPS limiter only kicks in when you’re not actively playing the game to improve its power efficiency.
If you have a gaming PC, it’s probably one of the most energy-intensive devices in your home. Globally, PC gaming uses about 230 terawatt hours of electricity annually – the equivalent of 59 million EU households. In the US alone, gamers consume $6 billion worth of electricity and emit about 12 million tons of CO2 per year – the equivalent of roughly 2.3 million passenger cars. No wonder we call them gaming rigs!
Through this feature, we aim to lower the amount of power your computer consumes when running Minecraft, thus helping decrease the greenhouse gas emissions stemming from gaming while also saving your device from undergoing unnecessary stress.
How the FPS limiter works
The FPS limiter feature limits the maximum framerate of the game in certain situations, controlled by a new video setting, “Reduce FPS when.” This setting has two modes:
Minimized: Limits the framerate to 10 FPS only when the game window is minimized.
AFK (Away From Keyboard): Limits the framerate to 30 FPS when the game has not received player input for over a minute. After a total of 10 minutes of no input, the framerate is further reduced to 10 FPS. It also limits the game to 10 FPS when it’s minimized. AFK is enabled by default when you install the snapshot, but you can switch to Minimized afterwards.
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