Firstly, it is faster and it may be negligible however the price certainly isn't negligible to a 980x.
Secondly it may not be a massive step up, but this has been the case the past few years in the gaming department so what's the difference? I know people running Q9550s now and are perfectly happy.
Also good luck on an 8 core nehalem, it's not going to happen.
I know people running pentium 3's who are perfectly happy whats your point?
I didnt say 8 core nehalem would happen i said it would likely come very close to 8 core sandy bridge, aka ivy bridge.
Sandy bridge is a glorified die shrunk nehalem, the real new architecture will come with haswell.