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Pure Metal [Mac]

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Pure Metal [Mac]

By imCinq

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Native Apple Metal renderer for Minecraft Java on Apple Silicon Macs: higher FPS and steadier frame times than OpenGL, works with Sodium and other mods, with optional render scaling and MetalFX.

Mod Loaders
Minecraft
26.3
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About

Description

Pure Metal ⚡

Pure Metal is a client-side Fabric performance mod for Minecraft Java on Apple Silicon Macs. It replaces OpenGL with a native Apple Metal renderer and works with Sodium. The game looks the same, it just runs on Metal.

Performance 📊

MacBook Air M2 (fanless), fullscreen 3420x2148, render distance 16, vsync off, same flight route every run. Medians of several runs in alternating order.

Measured on Pure Metal 0.4.0 with its default settings.

With Sodium

Renderer Avg FPS 1-in-50 slowest frame (p98)
Pure Metal 203 7.3 ms
OpenGL 85 19.8 ms

Without Sodium

Renderer Avg FPS 1-in-50 slowest frame (p98)
Pure Metal 178 8.5 ms
OpenGL 61 23.9 ms

Render Scale vs Vulkan (without Sodium)

Renderer Avg FPS 1-in-200 slowest frame (p99.5)
Pure Metal, 50% scale 246 8.0 ms
Pure Metal, Native (100%) 180 9.4 ms
Vulkan (MoltenVK) 154 11.3 ms

Native and 50% were measured alternately within the same runs. Results vary with hardware, settings and mods.

Render Scale 🎚️

Optional, off by default. Draws the 3D world at fewer pixels and scales it up. Menus, chat and the HUD stay sharp.

  • Render Scale: Native, or 50 to 100%.
  • Upscaler: Bilinear (fastest), MetalFX Spatial (sharper) or MetalFX Temporal (sharpest, may ghost on fast motion).

Find it in Video Settings or on the Pure Metal page in Sodium's settings.

More options ⚙️

  • Terrain LOD: on by default at render distance 16+. Distant solid terrain is simplified; nearby terrain, water, plants and glass stay unchanged.
  • Metal 4 (Experimental): off by default, needs macOS 26. Metal 3 is currently faster.
  • F3 screen: shows the active renderer, GPU, upscaler and render scale.

How it's built 🔧

  • Sodium works without patches or add-ons. Its terrain renderer runs natively on Metal.
  • Vsync off removes the FPS cap without screen tearing.
  • The screen always shows the newest finished frame, so input stays responsive.
  • Built around how Apple GPUs work, cutting the memory traffic that slows them down.

Privacy and safety 🔒

  • No network access and no telemetry.
  • If Metal can't start, Minecraft falls back to its default renderer. You can switch to OpenGL or Vulkan in Video Settings at any time.

Requirements

  • Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or newer), macOS 14 or newer
  • Minecraft 26.3, Fabric Loader, Java 25
  • Sodium is optional but recommended

Shader packs aren't supported.