Do I need a powerful computer or a GPU?

Rendering has traditionally been a hardware problem. An RTX card, enough VRAM, a machine you cannot use while it renders, and a replacement cycle that shows up as a capital expense every few years. Cloud rendering removes that entirely: the computation happens on our GPUs and your machine only has to display the result.

That has a few consequences worth naming. A Mac works, and so does a MacBook Air — architectural rendering has historically pushed practices toward Windows workstations, and this removes that constraint. An older office machine works. A machine that is simultaneously running Revit works, because nothing is competing for local resources.

It also means there is nothing to install. Archome runs in a browser tab. The optional SketchUp and 3ds Max plugins are small scripts that send your viewport through the API; they are a convenience, not a requirement, and a plain screenshot achieves the same thing.

The trade is that you need an internet connection and you are subject to our queue rather than your own. In practice a standard render takes about thirty seconds, so the queue is rarely the thing you notice.