How to Install Iris and Sodium for Minecraft Shaders (2026)

Sodium and Iris are the modern way to run Minecraft with shaders and still get high FPS. Sodium is the performance rendering mod, and Iris adds shader support on top of it. This guide shows exactly how to install Iris and Sodium together in 2026.

What Sodium and Iris do

• Sodium rewrites Minecraft's rendering to be far faster than vanilla or OptiFine.
• Iris adds shader pack support and works on top of Sodium.

You install both because Sodium alone does not load shaders, and Iris ships with Sodium bundled so they always match. If you have used OptiFine before, this pair replaces it with much better performance.

Step 1: install Fabric

Iris and Sodium run on the Fabric mod loader.

1. Download the Fabric installer from the official Fabric site.
2. Run it, pick your Minecraft version, and click install.
3. Open the Minecraft launcher and confirm the new Fabric profile appears.

Step 2: download Iris

Go to the Iris Shaders website or Modrinth and download the Iris installer or the Fabric jar for your Minecraft version. The Iris download already includes a compatible Sodium build, so you do not need to install Sodium separately in most cases.

If you download them as separate mods, get both from Modrinth and make sure the versions match your Minecraft version.

Step 3: add the mods folder

1. Open your Minecraft folder. On Windows this is %appdata%\.minecraft.
2. Create a folder called mods if it does not exist.
3. Drop the Iris jar (and Sodium jar if separate) into mods.
4. Also add the Fabric API jar, which both mods need.

Step 4: launch and add a shader pack

1. Start Minecraft using the Fabric profile.
2. Go to Options, then Video Settings, then Shader Packs.
3. Click the shaderpacks folder button, drop a shader pack zip inside, and select it.

Popular packs that run well on Iris include Complementary, BSL, and Sildur's. Start with a lighter pack if you have an older GPU.

How to update Iris and Sodium

When a new Minecraft version releases, update in this order:

1. Update Fabric to the new version.
2. Download the matching new Iris and Sodium jars.
3. Replace the old jars in your mods folder.
4. Update Fabric API too.

Never mix jars from different Minecraft versions, since that is the most common cause of crashes on startup.

Do shaders work on a server?

Shaders are client-side, so you install Iris and Sodium on your own PC, not on the server. Your server does not need any shader mods. This means you can use shaders on any Minecraft server, including a vanilla or Paper server, as long as the version matches.

The short answer

Install Fabric, drop Iris, Sodium, and Fabric API into your mods folder, then add a shader pack in Video Settings. Keep all jars on the same Minecraft version and update them together.

If you want a fast server to match your high-FPS client, Space-Node runs on AMD Ryzen 9 hardware. See the plans on our Minecraft hosting page or the performance hosting tier.