Sorry for bad call on this then, the Render[in] website lists the need for a GPU, so would assume it used it as most renderers do. How did you find out that it only uses CPU?
There are so many other renderers out there and much opinion as to which is best. Many come with a free trail period so that’s always a good place to start to see if its a good fit with your particular needs and workflow…
If productivity is key, it may well be worth considering a render farm that the work can be farmed out to so people aren’t waiting around with their machines consumed with rendering?
V-Ray is top contender but expensive. I use Thea…there are many others…if you search the forum here you will get some useful opinions…ultimately it’s a subjective call, , I’ve always used a musical instrument analogy. You need to master the controls of lighting and textures… as there’s no real “magic button”. So a good musician could get a great tune out of a cheap instrument, but a novice would make a Stradivarius wail.
a dedicated graphics card (best bang for the buck: GeForce GTX series) is important for performance as well as a proper 3D display output (see OpenGL) compared to the lame graphics subsystems integrated in the CPU as the intel HD series.
CAD modeling operations are in general single-threaded only.
Agreed, a GTX 1050, for example, can be a good CAD card. I am due a new machine at work and this will be the minimum GPU that I will get. Good thing I get to spec out our new CAD machines. 
go for the 1050Ti which is only slightly more expensive but delivers roughly 30% more power har har har
Thanks for all the info. I’ve never really worked in a design company so this is a learning process for me in regards to hardware requirements etc for the end user. Appreciate the responses
All good, will definitely check out Thea. Cheers!