What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
The reliable way to reduce entity lag is to profile the server while the slowdown is happening, identify whether entity ticking is consuming tick time, then change one control at a time. On Paper 1.21 and later, use spark with /spark profiler start --timeout 600; for specifically slow ticks, use /spark profiler start --only-ticks-over 100 --timeout 300. Reproduce the same mob, villager or farm workload after every change and profile it again.
Prefer not to run the server on your own PC? Godlike.Host offers hosted Minecraft Java servers with free DDoS protection and up to three free backups a day.
Start with simulation distance and entity activation ranges for server-side entity work. Investigate mob-cap concentration, farms, spawners, villagers, collisions and plugins shown in the profile. Use tracking and broadcast ranges only when the remaining problem is what clients receive or render; they are not replacements for diagnosing expensive server ticks.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
What “entity lag” actually means
Entity lag is not one failure mode. A server can spend too much time ticking living entities, pathfinding villagers, processing collisions or running plugins; that produces long ticks and delayed game simulation. A client can also render too many entities, or the network can carry more tracking updates than a connection handles comfortably. Those problems can look similar to a player, but the fixes are different.
A useful first distinction is the server tick. If a profile shows entity AI, pathfinding, collisions, mob spawning or a plugin consuming a large share of the tick, reduce or redistribute that work. If server ticks are healthy while players still see delayed movement or a distant entity disappear, inspect tracking, broadcast and client-rendering settings instead. Do not lower every distance value simply because a farm area looks crowded.
#1 Best Overall
Profile during the incident, not after it
Paper describes a profiler as a way to measure how often methods run, how much time they consume in a tick, garbage-collector activity and other characteristics of a running server. Its troubleshooting guidance emphasizes that profiling is useful while the problem is occurring. A quiet profile taken after players leave a mob farm cannot explain the lag that happened when the farm was loaded.
Run a normal workload profile
- Have the affected players reproduce the incident: load the farm, gather near the villager hall, or enter the area where mobs accumulate.
- While the slowdown is visible, run
/spark profiler start --timeout 600. The ten-minute window gives spark enough time to capture intermittent work without requiring a permanent profiler. - Keep the workload consistent. Record the number of players, the area loaded, whether a farm or spawner was active, and any large entity groups present.
- When the profile finishes, inspect the report for entity AI, pathfinding, villager logic, mob spawning, collisions, dropped-item handling, garbage collection and plugin calls.
Target only slow ticks
If the server is usually fine but occasionally freezes, use /spark profiler start --only-ticks-over 100 --timeout 300. This captures ticks exceeding 100 milliseconds during a five-minute window, making it easier to isolate spikes instead of averaging them with healthy ticks. Treat the 100-millisecond threshold as a diagnostic filter, not as a promised performance target.
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
What to record before changing anything
- The profile’s expensive call paths and the entity categories involved.
- Player count and the exact location or activity that triggers the slowdown.
- Current simulation distance, activation ranges, tracking ranges and broadcast percentage.
- Whether the workload includes villagers, a mob farm, a spawner, many dropped items or a dense collision area.
- The before-values in a configuration change log, plus a backup of the relevant configuration files.
Paper’s documentation summarizes the purpose clearly: “A profiler measures certain characteristics of a running server, e.g. how often a method is called and how much time it takes up in a single tick, how long and often the garbage collector runs and much more.”
Control server-side work with simulation distance
simulation-distance is measured in chunks and defines the radius in which living entities are updated. Entities outside that radius are not ticked by the server and are not visible to players. Lowering it reduces the number of active chunks and therefore the number of entities receiving normal server updates, but it can change how distant farms and other gameplay systems behave.
When lowering it makes sense
- The profile shows broad entity ticking across many loaded chunks rather than one pathological farm or plugin.
- Players do not need distant areas to remain fully simulated while they are elsewhere.
- You can accept farms, villagers and redstone-adjacent gameplay becoming inactive sooner at the edge of the radius.
Paper’s reference configuration lists simulation-distance=10. That is a configuration default, not an independent benchmark or a guarantee that ten chunks is optimal for your hardware and player count. Reduce it conservatively, reproduce the same workload, and check whether the area that matters to players still behaves correctly.
What to validate after a change
Walk outward from a player, observe where living entities stop receiving normal updates, and test any farm that depends on a player standing at a particular distance. Check that entities expected to be visible remain visible where players need them. If the profile shows only a compact hotspot, changing the global simulation radius may sacrifice distant gameplay without addressing the hotspot; fix the concentration first.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsThrottle distant entities with activation ranges
Entity activation ranges determine how close a player must be for an entity to tick normally. Outside the configured range, entities tick less frequently rather than receiving full updates every tick. Paper and Spigot configurations expose categories for animals, monsters, raiders, miscellaneous entities, water mobs, villagers and flying monsters.
Choose categories based on the profile
- Villagers: Lowering this category can reduce villager AI and pathfinding work in trading halls, but test restocking, movement and workstation behavior.
- Monsters and raiders: A smaller range can reduce active hostile-mob AI around players while preserving normal behavior nearby.
- Animals and water mobs: Useful when a base contains dense pens or aquariums that remain loaded for long periods.
- Flying monsters: Consider this separately from ground mobs if flying entities are the expensive category.
- Miscellaneous entities: This can include items and other non-living entities; changing it requires a specific dropped-item test.
A category set to zero or below disables activation-range throttling for that category. That does not mean “no entities”; it means the distance-based throttling mechanism is disabled, so those entities are not being reduced by activation range. Do not use zero as a performance setting unless the profile and your gameplay requirements justify it.
Rank #3
- The classic UNO card game builds fun on game night with a Minecraft theme.
- UNO Minecraft features a deck and storage tin decorated with graphics from the popular video game.
- Players match colors and numbers to the card on top of the discard pile as in the classic game.
- The Creeper card unique to this deck forces other players to draw 3 cards.
- Makes a great gift for kid, teen, adult and family game nights with 2 to 10 players ages 7 years and older, especially Minecraft and video game fans.
Understand the dropped-item side effect
Paper warns that dropped items outside the miscellaneous activation range can appear to lag, rubber-band or move backward. The items are being updated less often, so their visual movement can be discontinuous when a player watches from beyond the normal range. Test item transport, collection systems and public areas after changing this category; a lower value that saves tick time may make an item stream look broken to players.
Reduce mob concentration before reducing every distance
Entity count alone does not identify the cause. A moderate number of villagers with expensive pathfinding, a tightly packed farm with constant collisions, or one player consuming most of a mob cap can create a larger tick cost than a more evenly distributed population.
Check mob-cap distribution
Paper documents a per-player mob-spawn distribution option intended to prevent one player from consuming the entire mob cap. If one player’s farm or AFK position monopolizes spawning, enable or adjust that distribution control according to the behavior you want, then profile several players at once. This addresses concentration rather than simply hiding entities from clients.
Inspect farms and spawners
- Temporarily stop the suspected farm and profile the same area. A clear drop in entity work identifies the farm as a contributor.
- Look for mobs accumulating where pathfinding cannot resolve a destination, such as dense pens, transport bottlenecks or blocked villager routes.
- Check world controls related to mob-spawner ticking if spawners are active in the incident.
- Review entity-collision controls when the profile points to collision processing or when many entities occupy the same blocks.
Do not claim a fixed percentage improvement from these changes. No authoritative published benchmark or named reduction percentage establishes how much any setting will save; the result depends on entity types, player positions, plugins and the workload you reproduce.
Rank #4
- Now Minecraft lovers can play a special version of UNO!
- Same as Basic UNO but features Minecraft characters and includes special Creeper rule card. Draw this card and the other players have to draw three more cards from the pile!
- The goal is to get rid of all the cards in your hand.
- First player or team to 500 wins.
- When you're down to one card, don't forget to yell "UNO"!
Use tracking and broadcast settings for visibility and network load
entity-broadcast-range-percentage controls how close an entity must be before it is sent to clients. Paper documents a valid range of 10–1000 percent and lists 100 as its reference default. This primarily changes what clients receive and render. It is not a substitute for reducing server-side entity ticking.
Recommended Free Tools
Tracking ranges in spigot.yml are separate controls that define how far players, animals and monsters are tracked. Adjust them when server ticks are healthy but clients receive or render more distant entities than necessary. A smaller tracking or broadcast range can reduce network traffic and client rendering work, but players may stop seeing entities at a distance even though the server continues simulating them.
Do not confuse a hidden entity with an inactive entity
Lowering broadcast or tracking distance can make a crowded base look calmer to a client while the server still performs AI, pathfinding, spawning and collision work. Conversely, lowering simulation distance or activation ranges changes server updates and can alter gameplay. Profile first so the setting matches the bottleneck.
A controlled tuning procedure
- Back up configuration. Copy the Paper and Spigot configuration files before editing. Keep the original values in a dated change log.
- Capture a baseline. Reproduce the incident with the same players and activity, run the appropriate spark profile, and note the expensive entity categories and tick behavior.
- Select one control group. Use simulation distance for broad active-chunk work, activation ranges for distant entity ticking, mob distribution or farm changes for concentration, and tracking or broadcast ranges for visibility and network symptoms.
- Make one change. Record the old and new value. Changing several categories at once prevents you from knowing which adjustment helped or caused a side effect.
- Reproduce the identical workload. Use the same farm, villager hall, spawner, player count and approximate positions. A different workload is not a valid comparison.
- Profile again. Run the same spark command and compare tick cost, entity AI, pathfinding, collisions, garbage collection and plugin activity.
- Test gameplay. Check farms, villager restocking and movement, mob spawning, dropped-item motion, entity visibility at distance and any player-facing transport system.
- Keep or revert. Retain the change only if it addresses the measured bottleneck without breaking the workload players rely on. Otherwise restore the backup value and test a different control.
Which setting should you change?
| Control | Primary effect | Likely benefit | Main trade-off to test | Best diagnostic signal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
simulation-distance |
Stops normal server updates and visibility outside a chunk radius | Fewer active chunks and fewer living entities ticked | Distant farms and gameplay become inactive or unavailable sooner | Broad entity work across many loaded chunks |
| Entity activation ranges | Ticks entities less frequently outside category-specific player ranges | Lower AI and pathfinding work near the edge of player activity | Villager behavior, farm timing and dropped-item movement can change | Specific entity categories dominate the profile |
| Per-player mob-spawn distribution | Prevents one player from consuming the entire mob cap | Reduces concentration and improves distribution among players | Individual farm output or spawning patterns may change | One player or farm monopolizes mob spawning |
| Spawner and collision controls | Changes world-level spawner ticking or entity-collision processing | Targets spawner hotspots or dense piles | Spawner behavior and physical interactions can differ | Profile points to spawners or collision calls |
| Tracking ranges | Changes how far players, animals and monsters are tracked | Less distant client tracking and rendering | Players lose visibility at distance while server work may remain | Client visibility is excessive but server ticks are healthy |
entity-broadcast-range-percentage |
Changes the distance at which entities are sent to clients | Lower network and client-rendering load | Distant entities disappear from a player’s view | Network or rendering symptoms without expensive entity ticks |
There is no universally best lower value. Compare the measured tick behavior, farm and villager correctness, distant-entity behavior, player-visible tracking distance, network effect and ease of reverting. The documented defaults and ranges are configuration references, not performance scores.
Troubleshoot by symptom
“The server lags whenever many mobs are nearby.”
Profile while the mobs are present. If AI, pathfinding or collisions dominate, reduce the concentration: separate pens, stop an overfilled farm, inspect blocked routes, review collision controls and check whether one player is consuming the mob cap. Activation ranges can then limit normal ticking outside the active area. Do not begin with broadcast distance; hiding mobs from a client does not remove their server work.
“Villager trading halls cause periodic freezes.”
Capture a slow-tick profile while the hall is loaded and villagers are attempting to move or use workstations. If villager logic or pathfinding is prominent, test a villager activation-range change and reproduce restocking, movement and trading afterward. If the profile instead identifies a plugin or a collision hotspot, changing the villager distance will not address the cause.
“My farm stops working after lowering a distance.”
Identify whether the farm requires entities to remain inside simulation distance or to receive normal activation updates. Restore the prior value, then test a narrower category-specific change or move the player’s operating position so the required area remains active. Record the minimum value that preserves the farm rather than assuming the lowest value is best.
“Dropped items rubber-band or move backward.”
Check the miscellaneous activation range. Paper documents this visual behavior for dropped items outside that range because they update less frequently. Increase the range enough for the item transport or collection area, or keep the original setting if smooth item motion is part of the player experience.
“Players cannot see entities at long range, but the server still feels slow.”
Tracking or broadcast changes may have reduced visibility without reducing simulation. Profile the same incident and inspect entity ticking, AI, pathfinding, spawners, collisions and plugins. Address the server-side call path shown in the report; use visibility controls only for the remaining network or client-rendering load.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →“The profile shows plugins rather than vanilla entities.”
Note the plugin call path, reproduce with the same plugin-triggering activity and compare a profile when that activity is absent. Entity settings may have little effect if a plugin repeatedly scans entities, runs custom AI or performs expensive searches. Change only the setting that the profile supports, and keep the plugin evidence for its maintainer or for a configuration decision.
Quick Recap
Operational checklist
- Profile during the real incident with spark; use the slow-tick filter for intermittent spikes.
- Write down player count, location, entity groups and current values before editing.
- Use simulation distance for active-chunk scope and activation ranges for category-specific ticking.
- Investigate mob-cap concentration, farms, spawners, villagers, collisions and plugin calls shown in the report.
- Treat tracking and broadcast ranges as visibility, network and client-rendering controls.
- Change one control group, reproduce the same workload, profile again and test gameplay.
- Keep backups and revert any change that breaks farms, villagers, item movement or required visibility.
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
