Visable upgrades from Q9450 to i7?

[techwulf09]

Hello all, currently I am running an Intel Core 2 Quad 9450 on a ASUS P5N-D mobo with a 512 MB Nvidia Geforce 9800 GTX, and am considering upgrading to Intel i7-920. Mostly I'm upgrading just for the sake of upgrading, and to enable my computer to play high-demand games. I'm not in to overclocking, just playing my games at the best possible resolution and frame rate. I realize that i7 is considerably better based on the stats, but I wondered what sort of differences I will notice immediately and be able to see clearly? Will I see things like my rig bringing applications up faster, and being able to multitask many applications without much lag? I am very curious to know whether there are any other incentives for me to upgrade other than to enable myself for the future prospects of gaming. I am also wondering if such a large upgrade is even worth it if I'm not overclocking? I'm sorry if these are terrible questions, I'm pretty new to the building custom pcs scene.

The rig I am considering upgrading to will have;
Intel i7-920 CPU
MSI X58 Pro-E mobo
6 GB DDR3 RAM at 1600 MHz
896 MB EVGA Geforce GTX 275 GPU

Thank you all for your input, if any more additional information is needed please let me know and I will gladly give it to you. Thanks again in advance!

 

[techwulf09]

I was just informed that unless I go SLI there won't be much of a visible difference between my CPU's or in terms of gaming quality, is this true?

 

[baddad]

Just going to a GTX 275 will give you a big boost in performance.

 

[gfg]

go for ATI 5850, you cpu is fine

 

[techwulf09]

Ah alright, thank you all, seems like the general opinion is that upgrading my GPU would do enough for what I want. Thanks again all for your input!

 

[andy5174]

Q9450 is still very good, so keep it and upgrade only the video card as others suggested.