I am not super educated on this, but there may be a bigger difference going from 2.8 to 2.9 because there is a jump from 6MB L3 cache to an 8MB L3 cache with that upgrade. 2.8 (7700HQ) to 2.9 (7820HQ) is not simply a clock-speed upgrade. Going to the 3.1 (7920HQ) is a clock-speed only boost I believe, so probably not as valuable.