I'm looking at building a system to handle large panos both flat and spherical 180s. How much benefit would I get for getting a fast graphics card? (I'm looking at a high performance video card that is used for rendering for Autocad, Photoshop etc. but it is expensive -- like $700.) There clearly isn't much use in having a card like this if it doens't make much difference.
Run a search on the forum as this is a regular discussion point. Synopsis is that it is RAM on the card that is most beneficial if my memory is correct.
GPU is only usefull for editing and even that can be done without. I would invest in fast CPU, lots of memory, PCI-SSD's etc. first. Buying a expensive GPU is only for upgrading a machine that can't be upgraded otherwise. And if you do, APP and APG only use single GPU, but it will the GB's on the card thankfully.
Regards, Hans Keesom I stitch and render for other photographers. Price: 25 euro or less, no cure no pay. If you want to concentrate on your business let me do the stitching for you. Free TB of Dropbox space when you have more then 250 euro business a year.