besides gaming applications, how do the previous generation of sandy bridges stand up? (i5 2.4ghz) I heard from minimal to significant.

EDIT: found a nice resource for the specific models http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/474/Intel_Core_i5_Mobile_i5...

Yes, that's for sure. It's just unclear if I need any of those improvements except for games (which I'd happily sacrifice on my laptop).