[Troubleshooting] unacceptable FPS when running Minecraft and unplayable FPS with shaders on an R9 290x

[BEJR2000]

I have been getting some unacceptable FPS in Minecraft and poor FPS when using shaders on an R9 290x. People and my friends with GTX 560 Ti's and 750 Ti's get 300-500 fps when playing Minecraft. The 560 ti and 750 ti are much lower end GPU's then mine meaning that I should get allot more fps then them. Yes I know Minecraft is a very CPU dependent game but my CPU IS NOT bottlenecking as it never goes over %50 usage when playing Minecraft with and without shaders. Hell, you can run Minecraft on a Intel duo core or AMD duel core without bottlenecking. When using shaders my FPS reaches unplayable levels. A r9 290x should get over 60 fps with shaders from what I've seen from benchmarks. I would like help from the community to help me troubleshoot this issue and get it resolved.

Minecraft 1.8
Java Version 8 Update 51 (64 bit)
Video settings: Fancy graphic settings at 16 chunks
Shaders: http://minecraftsix.com/glsl-shaders-mod/
shaderpack for GLSL Shaders Mod: http://minecraftsix.com/sonic-ethers-unbelievable-shaders-mod/

vanilla FPS: 100-200 fps (unacceptable for an R9 290x)
shaders FPS: 20-30 fps (unplayable)

**PC SPECS**
Processor: Intel Core i5-2500
Graphics: Radeon R9 290X MSI Gaming Edition
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3-B3
Ram: 8GB DDR3
Power supply: AX860 860 watt 80 plus platinum Certified Fully Modular PSU
Software: Windows 7

 

[junkeymonkey]

got to remember minecraft is running on java - really a game that looks like a 1970's atari console game cant be that hard on todays hardware ??

I'd look at memory and java polluting up your system [opinion]