Minecraft
Genre: Open-World-Survival
Studio: Mojang
Publisher: Mojang
Rent a server
Rent a server
Genre: Open-World-Survival
Studio: Mojang
Publisher: Mojang

How to Allocate more RAM to Minecraft (RAM Upgrade)

While Minecraft in its basic version gets along just fine with the allocated 2 GB of RAM, some mods may require you to add RAM to Minecraft run smoothly. When you’re experiencing crashes, want to play with elaborate mods or just want to improve the performance of your game, you might think about how to allocate more RAM to Minecraft. Depending on how you play Minecraft, there are different ways of doing so.

Why do I Need to Add RAM to Minecraft?

RAM is a core piece of every running computer. Often referred to as the computers short term memory it is responsible for your system programs working finde and smoothly. Too little RAM may cause delays. The same way, RAM is necessary for a great Minecraft experience. Certain settings may require certain amounts of RAM. Otherwise the game might crash or lag a lot. Luckily, there are ways to add more RAM to Minecraft even after already spending several hours on building your new castle.

How to Give Minecraft more RAM on a G-Portal Server

Compared to the other ways of giving more RAM to Minecraft, a Minecraft server from G-Portal is the easiest place to change your settings. Here, you don’t have to look for and change file names. All you have to is, get yourself a G-Portal server, since you always also book a certain amount of RAM. You can choose from:

  • 2GB
  • 4GB
  • 6GB
  • 18GB (custom configuration)

Choosing 18GB, you should be prepared for all modpacks and high player numbers. If you are unsure, you can check out the modpack you want to use. They always tell you how much RAM is recommended for a smooth run and therefore tell you if you need to give more RAM to Minecraft. 

If you then decide on a certain modpack, you may need more RAM later on. You can add it at any time by going to your „My Server“ page and clicking on „Edit Gamecloud“. 

Quite simple, right?

Before You can Add more RAM to Minecraft

If you’re not playing Minecraft on a G-Portal server, the whole thing becomes a bit more difficult. First, you should find out two things:

1. How much RAM do I have available in total?
If you add more RAM to Minecraft than is available on your server or computer, it can lead to crashes. Just as if you allocate too little RAM to Minecraft for it to run smoothly.

2. Which version of Java do I have installed?
If you don’t have the latest version of Java installed, you may not be able to add more than 2 GB of RAM to the game.

There are limits, however, if you run Minecraft on a 32-bit system. You won’t be able to allocate  more than one gigabyte of RAM at all.

Attention!
Be careful not to allocate more than half of your available RAM to Minecraft, as it is also needed by your system programs.

More RAM to Minecraft: The Default Launcher

Most players probably use the default Minecraft launcher. If so, the process of allocating more RAM to the game is quite easy. All you have to do is as follows:

  1. Start the Minecraft launcher & go to the installation tab.
  2. Click on the three dots next to your version & select „Edit”.
  3. Go to “More options“ and find “JVM Arguments” in the Java settings.
  4. Change the command “-Xmx2G” to “-Xmx[desired amount of RAM in gigabytes]G”.
    E.g. to assign 4 GB of RAM to the game „-Xmx4G”; for 3 GB „-Xmx3G“
  5. Save your settings.

Once you saved these changes, you’re done. You succeeded in giving more RAM to Minecraft. The game will now use it and possible crashes or lags vanish.

Add RAM to Minecraft: Third Party Launchers 

Minecrafts large modding community has created other launchers that can be used to easily install modpacks and change settings. Examples include the “ATLauncher” or the “Technic Launcher”. Luckily, the process of allocating more RAM to Minecraft is similar with most of these launchers:

  1. Open your launcher & go to the settings (usually in one of the corners of the launcher window).
  2. Go to settings & look for the Java settings.
  3. Change the amount of RAM allocated according to your needs.

Individual steps may differ depending on the actual launcher you’re using. Still, the main step is finding the Java settings. Once this is done, there will probably be hints on where to exactly add RAM.

How to Dedicate more RAM to Minecraft servers

Although we would recommend using a G-Portal server, we of course know that there are numerous other existing Minecraft servers. Dedicating more RAM to Minecraft on your own server, however, is a bit more complicated:

  1. Create a text document on your Minecraft server.
  2. Enter the following command:

    “java -Xmx[desired amount of RAM in megabytes]M -Xms[desired amount of RAM in megabytes]M -jar server.jar nogui PAUSE”

    E.g. for 3 GB (3072M) of RAM it should look like this:”java -Xmx3072M -Xms3072M -jar server.jar nogui PAUSE“
  3. Save the document as „run.bat”.
  4. Search for “server.jar” on your Minecraft server & remove the abbreviation „.jar”.
  5. Run the “run.bat” file you just created.

The trickiest part here is inserting the right amount of RAM. Opposite to the other ways described above, you need to insert the amount in megabytes. You don’t know how many megabytes a gigabyte is? Don’t worry! There are countless converters online to help you with the math so that you can enjoy Minecraft again in a few minutes.

Conclusion: How to Allocate more RAM to Minecraft

As boring and complicated such a topic may sound, as easy can it be to actually change the amount of RAM. Now you know how to give Minecraft more RAM and no matter which explanation you choose to try or need to follow, in the end you will be able to enjoy the game even more thanks to amazing modpacks, single mods or just in general a smoother gaming experience. And if you always thought you couldn’t use a certain modpack because your server didn’t have enough RAM, go and check out your new knowledge on your own Minecraft server from G-Portal!

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