Extreme PC lag when playing Minecraft

Every so often my entire computer will just completely lag out. This isn't an ingame issue (even though play is impossible) but instead it's the entire PC. Any action takes forever to happen. For example, closing the browser or the game it self by just clicking the X in the corner take at least 30 seconds to 1 minute to actually happen. Before last week I hadn't played MC for more than a few minutes for months, so not sure if this is something new or known about.

The only thing that fixes this is just to reboot. I thought maybe it was in combo with Chrome running but still happened when just MC is running. Running a game with or without mods makes no difference and I use Prism Launcher to play the game. Maybe it's a Windows 11 thing, who knows, but I've had no issues on my laptop with same circumstances. Even tried a a fresh reinstall of Windows and all programs and still happens. Looking at the task manager, I did not notice anything overly using resources but I don't know much about all that.

Anyone else experience this or heard of it and a a potential fix?

It sounds like a hardware issue, especially with a fresh Windows install. If you notice anything else unusual, post it here, too. And post your computer's specs here.

AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 8 Core 3.70 GHz
Corsair Vengeance RGB 32 GB Ram DDR4-3200 CL16 (4x8)
MSI B450 Tomahawk Max ATC AM4 Mobo
Asus ROG Strix Gaming OC GeForse RTX 3050 8GB
Samsung Odyssey G9 49in Ultrawide Curved Monitor

Not sure the monitor could be the issue but it is the newest.

Is anything getting really hot? Does it happen only with MC, and not any other program?

I would suggest monitoring your temperatures first. After that, you should test your RAM. Earlier this year, I had a similar issue — one of my RAM sticks failed. There are programs to stress test RAM. You could also run your PC without certain sticks of RAM to test it.

My system runs super cool. I have 13 fans and ya it's just MC but not always. Like this morning I came downstairs and everything was super slow. Left main and an alt afk overnight. All day today, no issues but can happen at anytime and then it's 10 mins to super slowly shut everything down and reboot.

It very much to me sounds like RAM could be an issue. Make sure what RAM you do have is still fully functional, and perhaps even add additional sticks of RAM if your board has additional slots for it.

Does this issue persist with other launchers? For example, the vanilla launcher or the Modrinth App (which I am totally not biased about)?

Haven't tried. Only one I use. Will have to try vanilla one to see.

Resource Monitor is a built in windows utility that can help identify bottlenecks.

Agree with the others this sounds like memory. Could be anti-virus also.

Never use antivirus, another resource hog. If it's ram, I don't have this issue with other games. For example on RDR2, zero issues even on ultra settings.

And as we speak, the lagging has not happened in a few days. Maybe only when I run more than one instance.

So I bought more RAM and popped it in last night. I ran 4 instances of MC overnight, which would normally be lagging out by morning, and everything was normal so far Will keep it going to test but seems that was the issue. Weird that only happened with MC and not any other game or program.

Smart move! Minecraft (like Windows) is very RAM hungry. The more you give it, the better performance you will have! Up to a point that is, since it won't have to do a lot of garbage collection in the background!

New RAM, same problem 😔 Just took longer than normal to happen. Not sure what else it could be.

Oh no! Can I just put my hand up and say that Java Minecraft is just so dang unstable at many times? So much that it can be super frustrating for people? At least Bedrock is more performant and stable than Java. I just wish diagnosing stability on Java was much easier... :\

Just not sure why now this is happening. I've used multiple instances for MC for years, with and without mods, and never had this issue.

If it takes longer every time than it did before, it must be an issue with something building up, right?
Using the vanilla launcher changed nothing, correct? Note that there are currently two vanilla launchers for Windows, which might behave differently: this one and this one.

I wouldn't say it was longer every time. Really it's random. Could be a few hours, some times more. I don't use the vanilla launcher because I like to run multiple accounts at once.

I can run them without issue on my laptop, which is same OS, same Prism Launchers, mods, etc. Tried a fresh install, new RAM, fresh game installs (with and without mods). Very puzzling.

Minecraft Java Edition is quite a creature when it comes to stability and such. My guess is a conflict between your mods. Of course this is as good as anyone else's guess since it wasn't an issue before.

I usually only have mods on my main but maybe overnight I'll try a few instances running without on all.

That could be it, because since Minecraft Java is just poorly optimized for performance (save those mods that help increase performance), I can see this being an issue with multiple instances. I don't know the exact reason why (maybe memory leak?), but it shouldn't happen. I've had multiple instances run before and I don't suffer like you do. I'm curious if someone who has worked with Java can chime in on this, because now I want to know the answer too!