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Why Is Minecraft So Laggy?

Playing "Minecraft" is no fun when you're lagging. At best, it'll take you a long time to build anything; at worst, you'll take one step too many and end up in lava, or killed by an enemy you couldn't even see, losing all your gear. Because connection speed depends on a combination of factors, there can be many causes of lag, not all of which can be solved on your end. Graphical lag, on the other hand, only has one cause -- your computer not being powerful enough.

Slow Connection
- If your Internet connection is limited in terms of upload and download speed, you may encounter lag when playing "Minecraft" online. At best, you can solve this by ensuring you are doing nothing else with the connection while playing "Minecraft" -- in other words, stopping all downloads and shutting down all streams. At worst, your connection may simply be too slow to play "Minecraft" online. If you have tried playing on many different servers and have encountered lag issues on all of them, this is likely to be the case.
Server Issues
- The server you are trying to join may not be powerful enough, or its connection to the Internet may be too slow, to support the number of players connected to it. If this is the case, you will be able to connect to and play on a different "Minecraft" server without having any issues with lag.
Routing Issues
- Even if your Internet connection and the server are both powerful enough and working correctly, routing issues between the two may cause lag. If a server on the route between your computer and the "Minecraft" server is overloaded or offline and the data isn't being rerouted correctly, for example, you will encounter lag. If you can play on other servers normally and a friend with a different Internet provider has no issues on the server, this may be the cause, especially if you have previously played on that server with no problems. This type of issue is usually temporary. While waiting for it to be resolved, try using a proxy server to change the path between your computer and the server, or simply play on a different server for a while.
Graphical Lag
- The graphics in "Minecraft" may look simplistic, but looks can be deceiving -- running the game is actually fairly taxing as far as your computer is concerned. If your computer barely meets the minimum requirements, you will suffer from graphical lag and low frames per second while playing. Lowering settings such as view distance and graphics quality will improve the situation, as will shutting down every other program while playing. Ultimately, however, the only thing that will fix this specific issue permanently is upgrading your computer.

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