Would 256mb of GDDR3 RAM be enough for games like Halo 2 Vista, Crysis (lol I know wtf I'm I thinking), Starcraft II, and maybe a couple of older games? A list would be good too.
If you lower the resolution enough the memory probably wouldn't be an issue, but I don't know of any cards sold with 256mb of ram that are going to be worth a crap on those games anyways. Crysis and Starcraft list 256 as there minimum so I guess technically they would run. You will have to look up Halo 2 I don't own that game.
What about 1680x1050, no AA and maybe 2x or 4x Anisotropic filtering. I'm thinking about getting an nVidia GeForce 7900 GT for $33 on ebay as a temporary El cheapo upgrade until later.