Quartus II v7.2 changes to Signaltap

It is true that 7.2 uses more resources than 7.1. The increased resource usage is used for handling the buffer management scheme in 7.2. Changing the segmented buffer has the greatest impact on resource utilization as compared to any of the other setting. Though, performance of the SignalTap core is better in 7.2 as compared to 7.1. - SignalTap in 7.2 will be able to maintain a higher fmax.

One of the new features that was introduced is the trigger flow definition. You might get the debugging visibility that you're looking for by creating larger segments in the acquisition space, creating a handful of trigger conditions, and use the trigger flow definition to define how each acquisition segment should fill. This maybe a viable alternative to using a clock qualifier.

Another thing to note is that an STP file created in 7.2 can be used in 7.1. When migrating back, most of the setup options will remain intact. When opening up the file in the older release, SignalTap will prompt you to "upgrade" the file.