ENVI has the following system requirements:

  • Operating systems:

    • Windows 10 and 11 (Intel/AMD 64-bit)

    • macOS 12 and 13 (Intel 64-bit and M-series*)

    • Linux (Intel/AMD 64-bit, kernel 4.18.0 or higher and glibc 2.28 or higher)

  • Disk space: Approximately 4 GB for installation
  • Memory (RAM): Minimum of 8 GB
  • Number of processing cores: Minimum of 2, recommended 4 or more
  • Graphics card: Minimum of 1 GB RAM and support for Open GL 2.0 or later

* The Rosetta 2 emulator is required to run Intel-based ENVI on M-series Macs.

An X-Windows manager is required for macOS. ENVI was tested using XQuartz 2.8.5 on an M1 chipset.

ENVI was tested with ArcGIS Pro version 3.0.

Details

The best hardware configuration for ENVI will depend on the type of processing that is anticipated. Consider the following items when selecting a system configuration for use with ENVI.

Disk Space

The amount of hard-drive space that is needed for ENVI depends on the specific workflows and data that will be used. Our technical support group uses systems with 1 TB of disk space, which is more than adequate for day-to-day use. However, this would not address the needs of a production facility that processes large amounts of data on a daily basis.

A solid-state drive (SSD) is highly recommended for optimal performance.

Memory (RAM)

Most image display and processing capabilities in ENVI and IDL have been designed to work with minimal amounts of system RAM. Having a lot of RAM can help to avoid occasional memory allocation problems, especially with large datasets. Tests have shown that 8 GB of RAM is adequate for most tasks run using the latest versions of ENVI and IDL. However, if you anticipate working with very large datasets, or if you are building custom applications with ENVI+IDL code, then you may consider adding more RAM to your system.

Graphics Card

For optimal performance, your graphics card should have a minimum of 1 GB RAM and should support OpenGL 2.0 or later. Also be sure to install the latest drivers for your graphics card. If you anticipate implementing sophisticated graphical displays while building custom applications in ENVI+IDL—or if you expect to work with large datasets—then the more RAM the better.

Processors and Cores

ENVI only supports CPUs with the Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) instruction set. In general, any CPU after 2011 will contain this instruction set.

See Also

ENVI Feature Support, Multithreading and Distributed Processing in ENVI