System Requirements
You must meet the following system requirements to develop applications using the Kinect for Windows SDK version 2.0.
Important
Refer to the release notes for the most up-to-date info about system requirements and installation instructions.
- Supported Operating Systems and Architectures
- Recommended Hardware Configuration
- Software Requirements
- Additional Software Requirements
Supported Operating Systems and Architectures
The following operating systems and architectures are supported:
- Windows 8 (x64)
- Windows 8.1 (x64)
- Windows 8 Embedded Standard (x64)
- Windows 8.1 Embedded Standard (x64)
Recommended Hardware Configuration
Your computer must have the following minimum capabilities:
64 bit (x64) processor
4 GB Memory (or more)
I7 3.1 GHz (or higher)
Built-in USB 3.0 host controller (Intel or Renesas chipset).
If you're adding USB 3.0 functionality to your existing PC through an adapter, please ensure that it is a Windows 8 compliant device and that it supports Gen-2. See the troubleshooting section of Getting Started for more information.
DX11 capable graphics adapter (see list of known good adapters below)
- Intel HD 4400 integrated display adapter
- ATI Radeon HD 5400 series
- ATI Radeon HD 6570
- ATI Radeon HD 7800 (256-bit GDDR5 2GB/1000Mhz)
- NVidia Quadro 600
- NVidia GeForce GT 640
- NVidia GeForce GTX 660
- NVidia Quadro K1000M
A Kinect v2 sensor, which includes a power hub and USB cabling.
Important
Many laptops switch to a low-power mode that reduces GPU performance when operating without external power. If you plan to work on a laptop that is operating on battery power, you should disable low-power mode for your GPU. In some cases, the GPU performance is limited while on battery power even when low-power mode is disabled. In this case, you should keep your laptop plugged in while using the Kinect for Windows sensor.
Important
Kinect Fusion - When using Kinect Fusion, Kinect can process data either on a DirectX 11 compatible GPU with C++ AMP, or on the CPU, by setting the reconstruction processor type during reconstruction volume creation. The CPU processor is best suited to offline processing as only modern DirectX 11 GPUs will enable real-time and interactive frame rates during reconstruction.
Software Requirements
The following developer environments are supported:
- All Visual Studio 2012, including Visual Studio 2012 Express (Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Express)
- Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate, Premium, Professional, and Express for Windows Desktop
Additional Software Requirements
The speech samples also require:
- Microsoft Speech Platform Software Development Kit (Version 11), if you need to compile the samples.
- Microsoft Speech Platform Runtime (Version 11), which is automatically installed as part of the Kinect runtime setup, if you want to run the samples only.
The Depth-D3D and DepthWithColor-D3D samples also require:
- DirectX Software Development Kit, if you need to compile the samples.
- DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010) if you want to run the samples only.