Since the Ray Tracing/RTX updates landed in Minecraft back in 2021, as well as a bunch of shader mods, we have had a number of people contact our team to ask how they can get this awesome new feature on a budget-focused gaming laptop. We have condensed our advice into this article.
Can a laptop run Minecraft RTX?
The origin story of Minecraft features many instances of the game being perfect for those with PCs and laptops that did not have amazing specs. The attraction of Minecraft itself is that it lends itself to so many different types of gamer, and can be run on just about anything. There are some restrictions on the specification, though. Unlike Doom - which can be run on a pregnancy test...
The recommended specification for Minecraft requires an Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz or AMD A10-7800 APU 3.5GHz processor, a CPU that was released in 2014. The amount of RAM and GPU requirements are modest, and you can expect to enjoy the game at high framerates with all of the above.
Recommended Specification:
- CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz / AMD A10-7800 APU 3.5 GHz or mobile equivalent
- RAM: 4 GB
- OS: Windows 10
- VIDEO CARD: GeForce 700 Series or AMD Radeon Rx 200 Series (excluding integrated chipsets) with OpenGL 4.5
- PIXEL SHADER: 5.0
- VERTEX SHADER: 5.0
- FREE DISK SPACE: 4 GB
The ideal specification, however, is a little more contemporary:
- Intel Core i5-11400H / AMD Ryzen 5 5600H
- NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti
- 16GB DDR4 RAM
- 512GB SSD
- Windows 10 Home 64bit
- PIXEL SHADER: 5.1
- VERTEX SHADER: 5.1
- DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 6144 MB
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One of the most popular mobile graphics cards used with Minecraft is the RTX 3050 Ti, as this card bridges a gap between the RTX 20x and the higher priced RTX 3060/70/80/90 GPUs. Although the RTX 2060 is a great performer with Minecraft, and recommended by many, the processor it will be paired with will naturally be older, due to the card's age. The next logical step - with budget in mind - is the RTX 3050 Ti.
Is an RTX 3050 Ti enough for Minecraft?
The RTX 3050 Ti mobile graphics card is more than enough to play Minecraft with RTX enabled, and will absolutely benefit from excellent single core performance, which you'll get from the Core i5-11400H or AMD Ryzen 5 CPU, as the game is CPU intensive.
Can RTX 3050 Ti use Ray Tracing?
Short answer: Yes.
The RTX 3050 Ti for laptops can use the Ray Tracing feature, and in 1080p, you will see high framerates & good performance when there's a lot going on on-screen, or even if your world is huge.
How do you turn RTX on in Minecraft?
The best option is to check out Minecraft community forums such as r/Minecraft on Reddit.
Updated guides like this one by Reddit user u/SocietyInUtopia will offer you an incredibly easy way to enable Ray Tracing, and get the best out of RTX mods. This guide provides links to NVIDIA and AMD solutions, and will no doubt cover Intel ARC when available.
The main thing to remember is you need to be using Minecraft Bedrock, Windows Edition.
Enable Minecraft Shader Mods
Of course, what would a PC version be without mods? If you want to install shader mods to really make your worlds shine, then follow this simple guide:
Last Word
With the above specifications and the RTX version enabled, and maybe a few shader mods, your Minecraft gaming will be something special. Enjoy!
