Decreasing normal render distance without optifine?

[The great randomo]

I have a low end laptop, and can only just run minecraft on normal render distance. However, when I switch to short, I get a much better frame rate. Is there any way to get a happy medium, where more world is loaded than short, but less than normal?
For obvious reasons, optifine cannot be used.

[Locke]

I don't believe so, but have you turned you graphics settings down, particles down and enabled advanced openGL? I used to run on an old machine, and using that would help a lot.