Best Minecraft Shaders for 1.21.11 (April 2026)

Looking for the best Minecraft Shaders for 1.21? Minecraft's 8x8 pixel textures may be charming and nostalgic, but if you want to transform your world into something truly beautiful, forget texture packs - the most powerful single thing you can do is to install a Shader Pack.

Shaders are specialised Minecraft mods which overhaul the look of Minecraft with custom lighting, shadows, reflections, sun rays, fog effects, nighttime auroras, and more. The difference a good Shader makes is hard to overstate. Once you delve into the world of Shaders, it's very hard to go back to vanilla Minecraft.

The downside to using Shaders is that it requires your PC to work harder, and so your frame rate will drop while playing. That's why the very best Shaders strike a great balance between performance and aesthetics, and also give you tonnes of options for customising which effects you want and which you don't.

There's a dizzying number of Shader Packs out there these days, so to make the decision easier, we've compiled a list of 25 of the very best Minecraft Shaders for 1.21.11, along with instructions on how to install them without any hassle.

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Best Minecraft Shaders for 1.21.11

Below we'll go over how to easily install any of the Shader Packs in this guide, so you can transform your Minecraft world without any fiddling around with zip files and folder locations. But first, here are the 25 best Minecraft Shaders you can download for 1.21.11, ranging from the most astonishing lighting and reflections to the Shader Packs which will give you the highest FPS even on low-end PCs.

The best Minecraft Shaders for 1.21.11 are:

• Complementary Shaders
• BSL Shaders
• Rethinking Voxels
• Pine Shaders
• Photon Shaders
• Spring SSP
• AstraLex Shaders
• Sildur's Vibrant Shaders
• SEUS Renewed
• Bliss Shaders
• Kappa Shader
• Solas Shader
• Spectrum Shaders
• Pastel Shaders
• Vanilla Plus Shader
• Nostalgia Shader
• Insanity Shader
• Hysteria Shaders
• MakeUp - Ultra Fast Shaders
• Mellow Shader
• Miniature Shader
• Potato Shaders
• Simplicissimus Shader
• Trailer Shaders
• Super Duper Vanilla Shaders

Note: if you're looking for the most lightweight and performant Shader Packs that can run well on any machine, then look at the last several entries in the above list! MakeUp, Mellow, Miniature, Potato, Simplicissimus, Trailer, and Super Duper Vanilla are all excellent lightweight Shaders!

Picking the perfect Shader pack for your needs relies on finding a balance between beauty and performance. We'll go over both in great detail below, with FPS and benchmarking stats for all 25 Shader packs in this list. But if you're looking for a quite visual comparison of all the different Shaders, use the screenshot gallery below to figure out which Shader pack looks like the best fit for you!

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Vanilla

Below we'll walk you through each of these top-tier Minecraft Shaders, including screenshots, performance data, strengths, shortcomings, and download links for both Forge and Fabric to make choosing (and installing) the right Shader pack as easy as possible.

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Complementary Shaders (+ Euphoria Patches)

Download Links: Modrinth / CurseForge / Euphoria Patches

What we like about Complementary Shaders:

• Exquisite lighting and visuals
• Impressive performance
• Highly customisable

Complementary Shaders began life as an offshoot of the most popular Shader Pack around at the time (BSL Shaders), and over the past few years it's become the go-to Shader Pack for nearly everyone. Complementary comes with two preset modes: Reimagined, and Unbound. The former changes the water and clouds to be more Minecraft-y, while the latter goes for a more realistic approach. Personally, I like to play with Unbound water but Reimagined clouds - and you can do exactly that, thanks to the enormous freedom you have to customise these Shaders.

I'd also recommend downloading the Euphoria Patches add-on, which extends the functionality of Complementary, adds mod support for a huge number of mods, and just generally gives you even more tools for better crafting the perfect look for your world.

Complementary Shaders Unbound (+ Euphoria Patches) FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	136.4
Avg Max FPS	166.5
Avg Min FPS	111.5
1% Min FPS	107.0
0.1% Min FPS	24.0

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BSL Shaders

Download Links: Modrinth / CurseForge

What we like about BSL Shaders:

• Gorgeous lighting, ranging from warm to crisp
• Highly customisable
• Good performance considering how great it looks

BSL Shaders have always been jaw-droppingly beautiful. Before its offspring (Complementary Shaders) stole its crown, BSL was where you went when you wanted the best lighting for the fewest dropped frames. Everything included here, from the amazing depth of field effects to the warm, crisp lighting, the beautiful water reflections, and the fluffy far-off clouds, is utterly sublime. It runs fantastically well to boot, with a wide variety of comprehensive customisation options. It still might end up being your favourite even in today's Complementary-dominated world.

BSL Shaders FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	178.3
Avg Max FPS	223.1
Avg Min FPS	145.7
1% Min FPS	112.0
0.1% Min FPS	29.7

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Rethinking Voxels

Download Links: Modrinth

What we like about Rethinking Voxels:

• Possibly the most impressive looking shader pack out there
• Top-tier lighting effects right out of the box
• Looks good even on low settings

Rethinking Voxels, built atop Complementary Shaders, allows you to capture some of the most jaw-dropping screenshots and footage ever seen in Minecraft. When all's said and done, this Shader Pack earns its evocative name with a well-balanced selection of changes to Complementary which makes it a strong contender for the best looking Shaders in the world right now. The downside is that you need a tremendously powerful PC to run it well at max settings; Rethinking Voxels scored dead last in our FPS benchmarking tests. Still, your latest Minecraft house is unlikely to look any better than with this Shader Pack!

Rethinking Voxels FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	61.9
Avg Max FPS	68.4
Avg Min FPS	43.7
1% Min FPS	41.6
0.1% Min FPS	21.8

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PineShaders

Download Links: Modrinth

What we like about PineShaders:

• Very vibrant eye candy shader pack
• Gorgeous water, perfect for oceans
• Beautiful clouds

PineShaders is one of the most eye-catching Shaders I've found. Everything pops with colour here, which may not be to everyone's tastes, but I think it does a fantastic job of adding vibrancy without turning your world garish. I'm not a big fan of the static circle around the sun (and it seems to be one of the only things you can't turn off), but everything else looks absolutely gorgeous - particularly the water, which is the kind of deep blue that makes oceans feel like as they should: like an entirely different world.

PineShaders FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	121.0
Avg Max FPS	164.7
Avg Min FPS	99.8
1% Min FPS	29.6
0.1% Min FPS	14.8

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Photon Shaders

Download Links: Modrinth / CurseForge

What we like about Photon Shaders:

• Excellent warm lighting
• Beautiful skybox, particularly at night
• Good performance and customisation options

If cool and crisp is not for you, Photon Shaders are a fantastic option which bathes your world in warm (but still realistic) lighting. Taking bits and pieces from other established Shader Packs like Complementary and DrDesten and building on top of them, Photon Shaders has ended up as an extremely solid pick for many players, offering great vistas at any time of day, and respectable performance hovering somewhere between Complementary and BSL.

Photon Shaders FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	164.4
Avg Max FPS	197.5
Avg Min FPS	147.1
1% Min FPS	128.3
0.1% Min FPS	26.8

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Spring SSP

Download Links: CurseForge

What we like about Spring SSP:

• Beautiful lighting at any distance
• High contrast scenes make it very eye-catching
• Bright nighttimes

Spring SSP is another very impressive Shader Pack with an approach to lighting that stands out even in today's crowded Shaders market. The skies are bright and the shadows dark. Everything is crystal clear and beautiful at any distance. The skyboxes and reflections are complex and beautiful. The only downside is it's another real power hog, with similar FPS benchmarking stats to Rethinking Voxels. Don't expect to stay over 60 FPS unless you've got one hell of a setup.

Spring SSP FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	66.8
Avg Max FPS	99.0
Avg Min FPS	58.6
1% Min FPS	57.2
0.1% Min FPS	25.3

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AstraLex Shaders

Download Links: Modrinth / CurseForge

What we like about AstraLex Shaders:

• Fantastic stylised star constellations at night
• Vivid crisp, and legible effects
• Comes with BSL's excellent customisation options

AstraLex Shaders is a very popular offshoot of BSL Shaders. What struck me from the beginning was AstraLex Shaders' impressive and comprehensive set of customisation options, which allow you to tweak just about everything you can imagine, from specific lighting tones to various post-processing effects. Everything is crisp and vibrant, and the skyboxes are lovely - particularly at night. Some users might be turned off by the stylised star constellations, but I personally love them.

AstraLex Shaders FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	111.3
Avg Max FPS	138.8
Avg Min FPS	97.9
1% Min FPS	74.9
0.1% Min FPS	23.2

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Sildur's Vibrant Shaders

Download Links: CurseForge

What we like about Sildur's Vibrant Shaders:

• Lots of control over effects and colours in settings
• Great fog effects
• Various versions to choose from

The venerable Sildur's Vibrant Shaders has been popular for many years, and for good reason. Not only does this shader pack give Minecraft a comprehensive makeover, but it's also made a name for itself as one of the most customisable and flexible packs around. With Sildur's, it's very easy to spend ages tweaking little settings to achieve the absolutely perfect look for you and your Minecraft world. And even at max settings, it remains remarkably lightweight.

Sildur's Vibrant Shaders FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	171.4
Avg Max FPS	199.3
Avg Min FPS	158.3
1% Min FPS	111.9
0.1% Min FPS	22.4

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SEUS Renewed

Download Links: Sonic Ether's Unbelievable Shaders

What we like about SEUS Renewed:

• Great balance of performance and visual quality
• Opts for a clean and familiar Minecraft look
• Looks excellent without the need for customisation

SEUS Renewed is a recent reinvention of the original versions of SEUS (Sonic Ether's Unbelievable Shaders), focused on striking a strong balance between effect quality and performance. This shader pack goes for a very clean and familiar look that's less flashy than many on this list but just as beautiful, particularly in motion. The skies are bright and bold, the shadows add a new level of depth to the world, and the gentle flapping of the leaves in the wind will really help you lose yourself in a vast survival experience.

SEUS Renewed FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	195.4
Avg Max FPS	214.6
Avg Min FPS	159.2
1% Min FPS	129.5
0.1% Min FPS	27.6

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Bliss Shaders

Download Links: Modrinth / CurseForge

What we like about Bliss Shaders:

• Marvellous atmospheric fog effects
• Realistic, crisp lighting
• Lovely water and weather effects

Bliss is a variation of Chocapic's Shaders, which used to be on this list. Nowadays, Bliss is one of the absolute must-try Shader Packs if you want atmosphere and realism combined. Stand on a hill and look towards the horizon, and you - like I - may be blown away by the crisp lighting, the fog winding through the forests, the lovely soft shadows. Bliss goes for a different look from the industry standard Shader Packs, and succeeds. It's well worth a look.

Bliss Shaders FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	198.3
Avg Max FPS	232.9
Avg Min FPS	177.5
1% Min FPS	37.6
0.1% Min FPS	16.8

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Kappa Shader

Download Links: Modrinth / CurseForge

What we like about Kappa Shader:

• Great reflections and lighting
• Beautiful water and underwater scenes
• Looks great even at a distance

Kappa Shaders are far from the most performant and lightweight Shaders on this list, so steer clear unless you have a beefy machine. But if you meet that requirement, there's a lot to love here, not least of which is the incredible effect of the lighting system and shadows when viewed at a distance. If you want a gorgeous establishing shot of a natural landscape filled with trees and rivers, Kappa Shader is a great option.

Kappa Shader FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	96.7
Avg Max FPS	105.4
Avg Min FPS	81.2
1% Min FPS	77.5
0.1% Min FPS	27.9

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Solas Shader

Download Links: Modrinth / CurseForge

What we like about Solas Shader:

• Great nighttime effects and skybox
• Lovely rain and storms
• A great all-round Shader Pack with no real flaws

Solas Shader is another great, solid pick if you want to look beyond the initial selection of Shader Packs that everyone's using these days. Solas has some great features right out of the gate, including lovely weather effects (I'm a sucker for great-looking rain), and a beautiful nighttime skybox that reminds me of a toned-down Skyrim. Its performance is fairly average - not great but not terrible - so you'd best give it a try to see if it works well on your PC.

Solas Shader FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	112.9
Avg Max FPS	175.3
Avg Min FPS	99.8
1% Min FPS	91.7
0.1% Min FPS	28.8

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Spectrum Shaders

Download Links: CurseForge

What we like about Spectrum Shaders:

• Very convincing natural clouds
• Great water effects, particularly close up
• Nice subtle waving effects on blocks

Spectrum Shaders is one of the most realistic packs on this list - not in terms of pure visual fidelity, but in terms of style. The clouds in particular are convincingly lifelike, combining "traditional" fluffy clouds with long streaks of cloud moving about the world while you play. The water is also done very well in Spectrum Shaders. In fact, just about everything is done well here. The only downside is that it's not exactly the most performant Shader Pack out there.

Spectrum Shaders FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	102.8
Avg Max FPS	139.5
Avg Min FPS	85.0
1% Min FPS	79.8
0.1% Min FPS	27.9

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Pastel Shaders

Download Links: Modrinth / CurseForge

What we like about Pastel Shaders:

• Colour presets allow you to colour grade your world with ease
• Performs well on many PCs
• Impressive nighttime auroras

When I first added Pastel Shaders to this list, it had a scant 650 downloads to its name on CurseForge. Now it's standing pretty at over 19 million downloads, and the lure is easy to understand. If you want an easy way to inject some fascinating and atmospheric new colours into your Minecraft world, Pastel Shaders are a phenomenal option. It doesn't come with all the bells and whistles of the biggest Minecraft shaders out there such as BSL and Complementary - but it keeps things looking nice and characterful while providing solid performance.

Pastel Shaders FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	150.1
Avg Max FPS	175.1
Avg Min FPS	127.6
1% Min FPS	99.3
0.1% Min FPS	27.0

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Vanilla Plus Shader

Download Links: Modrinth / CurseForge

What we like about Vanilla Plus Shader:

• Doesn't stray far from the vanilla Minecraft look
• Very clean lighting and shadows
• Good performance on most machines

Another popular shader pack from the creator of Nostalgia Shaders, Vanilla Plus Shaders aims to give you a high-quality, elegant, lightweight Minecraft graphics makeover while staying as true as possible to vanilla Minecraft. And this it does with outstanding success. It's really impressive how good this pack makes Minecraft look without losing the charm and nostalgic feel of plain-old vanilla Minecraft.

Vanilla Plus Shader FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	192.1
Avg Max FPS	208.8
Avg Min FPS	165.3
1% Min FPS	118.2
0.1% Min FPS	22.3

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Nostalgia Shader

Download Links: Modrinth / CurseForge

What we like about Nostalgia Shader:

• Still the best Story Mode clouds in the business
• Great visuals and performance out of the box
• Lighting pairs well with lovely rain effects

Nostalgia Shaders give you a very lightweight and wonderfully subtle graphical overhaul for your Minecraft worlds. Designed to emulate the first few popular shader packs of the early 2010s, Nostalgia may be a little lacking in the customisation department compared with others on this list, but the flipside of this is that you don't need to do much tinkering to get a great-looking Minecraft experience that chugs along well on most PCs. But by far my favourite thing about Nostalgia is the cloud options. Do yourself a favour and turn on Story Mode style clouds immediately.

Nostalgia Shader FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	137.0
Avg Max FPS	158.2
Avg Min FPS	117.4
1% Min FPS	111.7
0.1% Min FPS	26.1

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Insanity Shader

Download Links: Modrinth / CurseForge

What we like about Insanity Shader:

• A great choice for horror-themed Minecraft worlds
• Very atmospheric lighting and skybox
• Highly performant Shader Pack

Insanity Shaders, based on BSL, has been designed to turn your Minecraft survival adventure into an unsettling, brooding horror-esque experience. Those screenshots above? They were taken during the day. The nights are far darker - be sure to bring torches to light your way. It won't be for everyone, of course, but this aesthetic might be just what you're after if you want to inject a bit of menace into a survival world.

Insanity Shader FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	243.6
Avg Max FPS	298.9
Avg Min FPS	208.6
1% Min FPS	113.8
0.1% Min FPS	26.0

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Hysteria Shaders

Download Links: Modrinth / CurseForge

What we like about Hysteria Shaders:

• Supports Distant Horizons mod
• Lovely clouds
• Well-balanced and high-quality lighting

Hysteria Shaders were designed as a modern successor to the Insanity Shader above, built on Photon instead of BSL. Hysteria shares many of Insanity's selling points - desaturated, moody tones and a deliciously horror-tinged atmosphere prime among them. But Hysteria adds some extra features like volumetric clouds and some warmer colours here and there, without sacrificing the dark mood. Performance is pretty similar (perhaps a little more consistent here though), so give them both a try and pick your favourite.

Hysteria Shaders FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	221.6
Avg Max FPS	266.9
Avg Min FPS	203.0
1% Min FPS	148.4
0.1% Min FPS	29.4

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MakeUp - Ultra Fast Shaders

Download Links: Modrinth / CurseForge

What we like about MakeUp - Ultra Fast Shaders:

• Very lightweight and tonnes of customisation options
• Beautiful reflections and water
• Nice crisp visuals at any time of day

MakeUp Shaders are a lightweight but powerful choice which will give your Minecraft worlds a makeover without sacrificing too much in terms of performance. Unlike similarly performance-focused shaders, which earn extra frames by not bothering to render shadows, MakeUp Shaders will still do just about everything you'd expect from a Minecraft shader pack - just with a lighter touch than most. The result is a shader pack that doesn't blow you away with incredible visuals, but instead strikes a nice balance between making your default Minecraft world look a lot crisper and nicer, and keeping the frame rate smooth enough to enjoy playing with it enabled.

MakeUp - Ultra Fast Shaders FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	262.7
Avg Max FPS	294.3
Avg Min FPS	216.4
1% Min FPS	139.9
0.1% Min FPS	25.9

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Mellow Shader

Download Links: Modrinth / CurseForge

What we like about Mellow Shader:

• Exceptional performance
• Subtle effects, not so in-your-face
• Still feels like vanilla Minecraft

It's amazingly impressive how well-optimised and lightweight Mellow Shader is when you see just how beautiful it can make any Minecraft landscape. Can it match the technical beauty of a Shader Pack like Rethinking Voxels? No, but it's certainly closer to that than it is to vanilla Minecraft, and you'll get probably the best performance out of any Shader Pack on this list. The shadows are soft and subtle, the lighting is lovely and warm, and the world still feels like Minecraft - just nicer.

Mellow Shader FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	416.5
Avg Max FPS	466.2
Avg Min FPS	289.5
1% Min FPS	155.9
0.1% Min FPS	28.5

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Miniature Shader

Download Links: Modrinth / CurseForge

What we like about Miniature Shader:

• Very lightweight and performant
• Crisp lighting
• Simple but very beautiful water

Miniature Shader is like a cooler, crisper version of Mellow Shader (above). Like Mellow, Miniature is incredibly lightweight and allows you to achieve some pretty gorgeous visuals without sacrificing much performance at all. Not to the same level as Mellow, but it's a great option if you're looking for a lightweight Shader Pack that focuses more on realistic, crisp-looking lighting and reflections.

Miniature Shader FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	343.3
Avg Max FPS	397.2
Avg Min FPS	212.7
1% Min FPS	106.7
0.1% Min FPS	28.7

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Potato Shaders

Download Links: Modrinth / CurseForge

What we like about Potato Shaders:

• Looks like how vanilla Minecraft should look
• Excellent performance
• Unusual "thick" water

Potato Shaders give players another option when it comes to the most lightweight Shader Pack possible, enhancing the look of any Minecraft world even on the humble potato setup. The standout here is the water, which is more opaque and almost jelly-like in its look. I honestly wasn't a fan at first, but it ended up growing on me a lot as I tested in different environments and under different lighting. It's quite mesmerising.

Potato Shaders FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	339.2
Avg Max FPS	383.2
Avg Min FPS	241.4
1% Min FPS	143.8
0.1% Min FPS	29.7

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Simplicissimus Shader

Download Links: Modrinth / CurseForge

What we like about Simplicissimus Shader:

• Very lightweight
• Crisp, high-contrast shadows
• Solid lighting effects

Simplicissimus Shader might be the closest to vanilla Minecraft you can get in this list, which is not to say it does nothing. Toggle between Simplicissimus and vanilla, and you'll quickly see how the subtle lighting and shadow effects end up doing a lot of heavy lifting to make your Minecraft world more appealing to the eye. With performance to match Miniature and Potato Shaders, Simplicissimus is well worth checking out if you're on a lower-end PC and prefer your Shaders understated.

Simplicissimus Shader FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	318.3
Avg Max FPS	361.6
Avg Min FPS	202.7
1% Min FPS	123.9
0.1% Min FPS	28.0

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Trailer Shaders

Download Links: Modrinth

What we like about Trailer Shaders:

• Plug-and-play, very simple pack
• Very vibrant
• Highly performant

Trailer Shaders' Modrinth page says that it's designed to give you "the same trailer-like aesthetic" as Complementary Shaders with BareBones Texture Packs - but with much higher FPS. Well, it's half-right. Let's be honest, Trailer Shaders doesn't hold a candle to Complementary. But what it does do is offer players a far more lightweight, far simpler Shader which nonetheless catches the eye with its punchy and vibrant lighting.

Trailer Shaders FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	331.7
Avg Max FPS	370.4
Avg Min FPS	208.9
1% Min FPS	124.4
0.1% Min FPS	27.9

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Super Duper Vanilla Shaders

Download Links: Modrinth / CurseForge

What we like about Super Duper Vanilla Shaders:

• Impressive balance between performance and lighting quality
• High degree of customisation
• Lovely skies, clouds, and stars

The simply (but effectively) named Super Duper Vanilla Shaders is one of the few modern shader packs that isn't built off the success of one of the previous generation of shaders. Effective, usable on a wide variety of PCs, and highly customisable, this pack may not be the most beautiful on this list, but the balance it strikes between performance and quality makes it as super as its name suggests.

Super Duper Vanilla Shaders FPS/Performance Data:

Average FPS	280.9
Avg Max FPS	321.1
Avg Min FPS	199.7
1% Min FPS	137.5
0.1% Min FPS	25.8

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How to install Minecraft Shaders for 1.21.11

By far the easiest and most pain-free way to install Minecraft Shaders these days is to use Prism Launcher, or another custom launcher for Minecraft. With Prism Launcher, all you need to do is open it up, pick the version of Minecraft you want, and then select from a huge dropdown list which Shader Packs you'd like to install. Incidentally, you can do the same with mods, resource packs, and more. It just makes everything so much easier.

Here's exactly how to install Minecraft Shaders for 1.21.11 using Prism Launcher:

1. Download the Prism Launcher Installer.
2. Launch the Installer and follow the steps on-screen to complete installation.
3. Run Prism Launcher.
4. Click the "Add Instance" button at the top of the window.
5. Select the latest version of Minecraft (1.21.11) and click "OK".
6. Right-click your new 1.21.11 instance of Minecraft, and select "Edit".
7. Select "Shader Packs" on the left-hand side, and then click "Download Packs".
8. Use the pop-up window to find the Shader Packs you're looking for in either Modrinth or CurseForge.
9. Check the tickbox of any Shader Pack you'd like to download.
10. Once you're done, click "Review and confirm", then click "OK".
11. (RECOMMENDED) Install Sodium and Iris mods.
    • Select "Mods" on the left-hand side, and then click "Download Mods".
    • Click "Yes" if you're shown a pop-up window about installing a mod loader.
    • Select the latest version of Fabric (recommended), then click "OK".
    • Tick the boxes next to "Sodium" and "Iris Shaders".
    • Click "Review and confirm", then click "OK".
12. When you're ready to play, click the "Launch" button.

What if I can't find my Shader Pack in the list?

If there are any Shader Packs you can't find in Prism Launcher's list, don't worry! Find the Shader Pack online and download it manually from Modrinth, CurseForge, or anywhere else.

Then, open up Prism Launcher again, right-click your instance of Minecraft, and click "Folder". This will open up the Minecraft folder location on your PC. Go into the "minecraft" folder and then the "shaderpacks" folder. You can then copy or move your downloaded Shader zip file directly into this "shaderpacks" folder, and it'll appear in Prism Launcher as a downloaded Shader Pack.

How to install Minecraft Shaders manually

If you don't want to use a custom launcher like Prism Launcher, you can still download and install Shaders without too much hassle. You'll need to download either Sodium and Iris Shaders (recommended) or Optifine. Then, follow these steps:

1. Use the links on this page to download your chosen Shader Packs.
2. Open Windows Explorer and paste the following into your search bar: %appdata%\.minecraft\shaderpacks.
3. Place the downloaded Shader ZIP folder(s) into this folder.
4. Run the Minecraft launcher, then select either the "Iris and Sodium" installation or the "Optifine" installation depending on which method you chose.
5. Click "Play" to launch Minecraft with your Shaders enabled.

Note: You may need to make the 'shaderpacks' folder yourself. You'll need to create the folder inside the '.minecraft' folder. Make sure you name the new folder "shaderpacks", all lowercase and without spaces or apostrophes.

Once you're in-game, you can enter the settings menu and navigate to the Shader Packs settings screen to enable/disable Shaders, and to pick and customise your chosen Shader Pack from the list of Packs you added to the "shaderpacks" folder.

And that's it! You can now enjoy Minecraft in all the splendour afforded by the most powerful and beautiful Shader Packs online!

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How did we benchmark these Shader Packs?

In order to get realistic FPS data for each of the above Shader Packs to help you figure out which is best for your PC, I tested each one using a rigorous process, flying across the same landscape in Spectator Mode (moving at max speed) from the exact same starting position and rotation each time.

I used MSI Afterburner to measure the FPS reached for each of the Shaders throughout this test, and copied the results directly into this guide. The Max and Min FPS values are a smoothed average, to give you a better idea of realistic gameplay FPS. The 1% and 0.1% lows are real-time, un-averaged values. The easy way to read it is this:

• The nearer the 1% and 0.1% lows are to the average, the more consistent the framerate.
• If the 1% is nearer to the 0.1% than the average, it may indicate stuttering/frame drop issues.

All of the data was captured running Minecraft with the Sodium, Lithium, Moonrise, and Iris mods. The game was running in borderless fullscreen, on a machine with the following specs:

• Monitor Resolution: 3840 x 2160 (4k)
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 8-Core
• RAM: 32GB

The landscape moved between forests, water, badlands, and jungle, with a brief amount of time also spent underground looking through the world in Spectator view. It was designed to be a fairly strenuous benchmarking test, so that you can see how each Shader Pack will actually perform as you move about and live within your Minecraft world.

Here is the full benchmarking data for each of the 25 Shader Packs in this guide, listed together in table format for easy comparison:

Shader Pack	Avg FPS	Avg Max	Avg Min	1% Min	0.1% Min
Complementary Shaders	136.4	166.5	111.5	107.0	24.0
BSL Shaders	178.3	223.1	145.7	112.0	29.7
Rethinking Voxels	61.9	68.4	43.7	41.6	21.8
Pine Shaders	121.0	164.7	99.8	29.6	14.8
Photon Shaders	164.4	197.5	147.1	128.3	26.8
Spring SSP	66.8	99.0	58.6	57.2	25.3
AstraLex Shaders	111.3	138.8	97.9	74.9	23.2
Sildur's Vibrant Shaders	171.4	199.3	158.3	111.9	22.4
SEUS Renewed	195.4	214.6	159.2	129.5	27.6
Bliss Shaders	198.3	232.9	177.5	37.6	16.8
Kappa Shader	96.7	105.4	81.2	77.5	27.9
Solas Shader	112.9	175.3	99.8	91.7	28.8
Spectrum Shaders	102.8	139.5	85.0	79.8	27.9
Pastel Shaders	150.1	175.1	127.6	99.3	27.0
Vanilla Plus Shader	192.1	208.8	165.3	118.2	22.3
Nostalgia Shader	137.0	158.2	117.4	111.7	26.1
Insanity Shader	243.6	298.9	208.6	113.8	26.0
Hysteria Shaders	221.6	266.9	203.0	148.4	29.4
MakeUp - Ultra Fast Shaders	262.7	294.3	216.4	139.9	25.9
Mellow Shader	416.5	466.2	289.5	155.9	28.5
Miniature Shader	343.3	397.2	212.7	106.7	28.7
Potato Shaders	339.2	383.2	241.4	143.8	29.7
Simplicissimus Shader	318.3	361.6	202.7	123.9	28.0
Trailer Shaders	331.7	370.4	208.9	124.4	27.9
Super Duper Vanilla Shaders	280.9	321.1	199.7	137.5	25.8

The shader packs listed here cover the entire spectrum in terms of looks, customisation options, and performance impact, so hopefully you've found the perfect mod for you. If you want to experiment with a wide variety of seeds to really put these packs to work, see our guide for the best Minecraft seeds. We also have lists of the best things to build in Minecraft, as well as castle and tower ideas if you're looking for inspiration for your next building project! Alternatively, get your survival game off to a roaring start with our guide on the best level for Diamonds in Minecraft.