We recommend any graphics card that fully supports OpenGL 3.0 or higher and has at least 64 MB of video memory. If you're going to create large models, we recommend a graphics card with more than 512 MB of video memory. OpenGL is a set of instructions for how your computer's graphics components work with the rest of your computer and your software. OpenGL is particularly important for 3D programs like SketchUp, as well as 2D graphics programs. If the graphics card manufacturer supports the standard OpenGL instructions well, then your 3D and 2D programs will work well.

3D applications, such as SketchUp, require abundant system resources. Aside from having a fast CPU and large amounts of RAM, your video card and video card drivers must be 100% OpenGL compliant. What is OpenGL? OpenGL is the industry-standard graphics library used in numerous software applications and games, to draw 3D geometry. Most Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X operating systems come with a software-based OpenGL driver. However, these drivers rely heavily on the CPU to perform the rendering calculations of OpenGL (a task that is not done efficiently by most CPUs).