Mostly, yes, depending on the task and spec of the machine. Simply put: a virtual machine in the cloud has far more resources at its disposal. A virtual desktop runs on servers, which cling together like a team of horses pulling a cart. This, meanwhile, is in contrast to a physical laptop or desktop, which (using our analogy) only has one horse.
However, the main reasons for choosing a cloud-based virtual machine over a physical machine are its reliability, security and zero maintenance. In addition, there’s no capital layout (i.e. no need to actually buy the physical machine). This saves space and reduces the need for in-house IT wizards.