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] :