Does paint, or paintComponent utilize the GPU for drawing images on the screen?
I have a program that is loading images on a JPanel at 60fps, and I wonder if that is too much for a game I'm making
It should be. Best way to know how to proceed would be to do a test and load a bunch of fake images, and makes sure you don't drop frames. Even if you use the GPU it might not be fast enough on your device, so recommend testing regardless.