Worth it in the long run?

Hmm I really have gotten mixed review on this card, It's gainward 256 MB GeForce 5200 FX. It came with my system, but I'm really short on cash right now after buying a new power supply. Is it worth to upgrade right now because it sucks so much? Or should I wait until the prices drop to get a better one, and let this one hold me over until then?

radium said:

Hmm I really have gotten mixed review on this card, It's gainward 256 MB GeForce 5200 FX. It came with my system, but I'm really short on cash right now after buying a new power supply. Is it worth to upgrade right now because it sucks so much? Or should I wait until the prices drop to get a better one, and let this one hold me over until then?

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if your short on cash, then wait till you can get something you will be happy with.

Well this is true to all computer hardware, wait a copule of months and something new will pop up and you could wait forever......
ATI pretty much ensured there will be no dramatic price drop in the near future with the 128 bit cards coming out and in few months when the X600 comes out they will simply stop making the 9800 cards replacing them with "old-new" X cards.
Is it worth waiting? Well if you can get the 200 bucks get the R9800 Pro, or get the 5900XT for around 30-40 USD less.
Think of what will you be missing while you wait...

depends how much u have got and how much gaming u do ?

I get about 80 dollars a day bussing tables, but I still have to pay for gas, insurance, and maintenance on my car, I'm 16, so insurance is about 200 dollars a month.

I was thinking about getting Battlefield 1942: Vietnam, and maybe Far Cry, although I realize that's a stretch on every machine.

Okay, seeing as you are on a tight budget you have a few choices.
1)Buy a GeforceFx 5700 or Radeon 9600XT Now. You can run today's games (barring far cry) at high resolutions with 2xaa and 4xaf enabled and still get playable framerates out of them. However this is just another stopgap solution as these cards lifespan is pretty short (around 8-14months) because the next wave of dx9 games are pretty much gonna render them useless for serious gaming.
2)Save up and get a Radeon 9800Pro. This is really what you want to do as I firmly believe that the 9800Pro is the best card you can buy for the price anywhere. It handles all games easily and provides the best image quality you'll find out there. It also is more future proof as I see this card lasting a good 1.5-2 Years. Most 9800Pro's also overclock very well and you can get around a 5-14% increase in performance out of em. Not bad for a paltry 200 green.

I was thinking the same thing, should I get 256, or 128 MB?

which is better for general gaming? Same price...

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-131-238&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-142-009&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-268&depa=0

Well in your situation I would go for the 128mb version. Also I'd take the sapphire card or the connect3d card. Stay away from the powercolor version as I've heard alot of negative things about them, also they tend to overclock the least.

Edit: Make sure the 9800Pro you buy states it has the 256bit memory bus as some 9800pro's are bieng sold shadily with only 128bit memory busses.