Would I really notice the difference between 6 and 8 cores on an Intel Core i7?

I am looking to buy a reasonably high end laptop. This is proving to be extremely difficult because of a worldwide shortage of GeForce RTX 3060 and 3070 graphic cards.

I am a coder, and my prime concern is a 17.3@ screen, so that I can have code & documentation side by side. I don't care about extra hi-res graphics, as I am not really a gamer (and if I do, it's turn by turn 4x, so I don't need speed to avoid being shot).

I will generally have an IDE or two open for coding, a few browsers, with 50 or so tabs, occasionally as many as 100). There are usually backups running, and the occasional low-demand game.

I upped from 16gB to 32gB last time and noticed that I rarely exceed 14gB in use (I will still go for 32gB this time, as it doesn't add too much cost). I will also go for 2 @ 2tB SSD.

Now, to the question: I found a laptop which pretty much matches my specs. It has a 10th generation Core i7, the 10870H [Update: my mistake, it is a 10750H]. This was launched last September, so should be good enough. Except that it has 6 cores where most nowadays have 8.

I am torn between buying now, as my old laptop died 6 weeks ago & am using a 12 year old laptop which I had lying around, or waiting for a "better" processor.

Question: would I notice the difference between 6 & 8 cores?

I am tempted to buy now, but will have the laptop for the next 5 years or so. Will those 2 extra cores make any discernible difference - to me, and my usage?

[Update: recommended reading] :

• Multiple Core Processors: Is More Always Better?
• How Many Cores? Is More Always Better?
• CPU Cores: How Many Do I Need? (by HP)
• How to Buy the Right CPU: A Guide for 2021 (Tom's hardware)
• How Many CPU Cores Do You Need? (Dec 2019)

Solution 1:

That CPU is fast. You are wrong about its cores - it has 8 cores and 16 threads. I find https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-10870H+%40+2.20GHz&id=3856 a good place to look at CPU speeds and compare them.

Also, in case you want the 8 cores/16 threads from the horses mouth - here is what Intel says - https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/208018/intel-core-i7-10870h-processor-16m-cache-up-to-5-00-ghz.html

With respect of cores, assuming for a minute that it only had 6 cores, and ignoring clock speeds - this would only make paralleled processing faster - I imagine in your case this could shave a bit of time off compiling complex code - but for the most part it sounds like your system is more likely to be IO bound due to the backups.

-- There is a useful comparison between the i7-10750h and i7-10870h at https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/compare.html?productIds=208018,201837 While the i7-10870h is a more capable CPU, the difference is somewhat offset by the higher base frequency (2.6GHz vs 2.2GHz) - so it is possible that in some work loads the i7-10750h will actually outperform its faster cousin.

If the fastest compile times for large programs are not a concern, and you are not doing a lot of processing in different tasks at the same time the i7-750h will likely serve you well.