GIS for large (>> 2GB) files

I’m a novice GISer who needs to do some basic computations on very large (say ~20GB) files. Nothing complicated, merge, intersect, add XY columns kind of thing. It’s a necessary step for a project, but it won’t be something I do frequently. From what I understand, ArcMap refuses to work with files over 2GB and I think QGIS would crash with these files.

As I can see it, my options are:

1. Knuckle down and learn GIS python scripting just for this one computation
2. Break my computation down into 2GB chunks and run it 10 times, hoping none of the intermediates exceed 2GB.
3. Find software or file formats that can handle large files.

Number 3 would be the easiest if such software exists but I’m not sure it does. If not, do I have any options other than 1 and 2? Both are unpalatable (being new at scripting for 1, tedium and possibility that it doesn’t work for 2). Are there other options?