do we actually need 8 cores for stuff yet though ?
Not sure about 8 but definitely there are games where there is still more value in having a 6 core based on performance sacrifice of a 4 core. Outside gaming - for general office use and even some data analysis: high IPC, high clock speed quad core is still good enough
Higher than 6 core count CPUs serve only a handful of purposes
* You want the gauranteed best gaming performance regardless of cost even if it's not good value for money - sometimes it's not even about the number of cores but more so that AMD and Intel bins their chips in a way where the higher core count products also have the fastest clocks which gives better gaming performance
* You use applications that can make use of high core counts AND you value your time so much that cutting a minute or two off of processing time is worth it (for example would you pay an extra $1000 for a CPU if it saved you 20 minutes a day in your job/business?)
* Servers and VM's: Servers and VMs that can have a high number of users connected at once naturally requires enough resources to go around so that the service level is maintained