The bug
The "Minimized" condition is rarely effective for most players. To trigger a true minimization, players must click the minimize button in the top-right corner in windowed mode or minimize it directly from the taskbar. Most players simply switch tasks using Alt+Tab or by clicking another application on the taskbar without actually minimizing the Minecraft window. In these cases, FPS reduction does not trigger at all, and GPU usage remains high.
In 26.3 pre3, FPS is now properly limited when another window comes to the foreground, but only when Exclusive Fullscreen is set to ON in Fullscreen mode. However, FPS is still NOT limited when switching windows under the following conditions:
Windowed mode
Fullscreen mode with Exclusive Fullscreen set to OFF
Because of this, players using Windowed mode or Exclusive Fullscreen OFF still cannot benefit from this setting when switching tasks via Alt+Tab or the taskbar. This behavior is inconsistent across display modes.
To reproduce
Set the option to "Reduce FPS when: Minimized".
Set the display mode to Windowed mode (or Fullscreen with Exclusive Fullscreen OFF).
Switch to another application using Alt+Tab so another window comes to the foreground (without minimizing Minecraft).
Observe that FPS is not limited and GPU usage remains high.
(Comparison) Change to Fullscreen with Exclusive Fullscreen ON and repeat step 3 — observe that FPS is successfully limited.
The functionality should be updated to work as follows
FPS should be consistently limited whenever another window comes to the foreground / Minecraft loses focus, regardless of whether Exclusive Fullscreen is ON, OFF, or if the game is in Windowed mode.
Linked issues
relates to 2
Comments 4
Thank you for checking.
Yes, I understand that actually minimizing the window works as intended. However, the core issue I am pointing out is the inconsistency when using Alt+Tab:
Fullscreen with Exclusive Fullscreen ON: Pressing Alt+Tab reduces FPS (even though the window is not minimized).
Fullscreen with Exclusive Fullscreen OFF & Windowed mode: Pressing Alt+Tab does NOT reduce FPS.
If "Minimized" strictly meant true minimization, then Alt+Tab under Exclusive Fullscreen ON shouldn't reduce FPS either. Since Alt+Tab does trigger the FPS reduction under Exclusive Fullscreen ON, it makes no sense for Windowed mode and Exclusive Fullscreen OFF to behave differently when unfocused via Alt+Tab.
Furthermore, the name of the setting itself is misleading. Since FPS is now limited when the window loses focus in Exclusive Fullscreen mode, naming it "Minimized" no longer accurately describes its behavior.
The option should either be renamed to something like "Reduce FPS when: Unfocused" (or "Not in Foreground"), or its behavior should be updated to consistently work across all display modes when switching tasks.
This issue is closely related to MC-311714.
In Fullscreen with Exclusive Fullscreen ON, players have no way to actually minimize the window. Because of this, the behavior was changed so that FPS is reduced even without being minimized when switching windows.
I believe this behavior should be applied to all other display modes as well for consistency. It makes little sense for FPS reduction to trigger on task switch only when Exclusive Fullscreen is ON, while failing to do so in Windowed mode or with Exclusive Fullscreen OFF.
Thank you for your report!
After consideration, the issue is being closed as Working as Intended.
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I tested this in 26.3 Pre-Release 3. When Minecraft is actually minimized in Windowed mode, FPS and GPU usage are reduced as expected. Simply switching to another application with Alt+Tab does not minimize the Minecraft window, so the FPS reduction does not activate in that case.