tl;dr - first card now loads and renders ~45–60% faster. next/prev now 9x faster. balancing a photorealistic renderer with performance is a dance. i'll keep tw

tl;dr - first card now loads and renders ~45–60% faster. next/prev now 9x faster. balancing a photorealistic renderer with performance is a dance. i'll keep tweaking, but thanks for the input and the fun challenge. was a bit of a doozy tbh, but feels much faster now.