Right. If you're a gamer on a limited budget, it makes more sense to spend the money on the GPU and not the CPU. The problem for AMD is that the 8700K isn't the only release - the new i5 also has 6 cores but is quite a bit cheaper. It may not have HT but I'd probably trade that for the ST advantage.
Yeah, if the i5 6C/6T is indeed priced under $200, that's going to be a strong competitor, especially for gaming, with the Ryzen 5 1600/1600X CPUs, especially if it can be clocked above 4Ghz.
I don't hate CoffeeLake, quite the opposite, really. I'm thrilled that Intel is finally upping the core-counts of "mainstream" CPUs. But I do thank AMD for prodding Intel into finally doing so, after all these years, of only quad-core max on mainstream sockets. (Q6600 came out
when???)
I might even get an unlocked 6C/6T CoffeeLake to mess with, or use as my "gaming" rig. But I likewise cannot deny the strong value proposition that my Ryzen 5 1600 CPUs have given me. For the same price as a Kaby Lake locked i5 4C/4T CPU, I got an
unlocked 6C/12T CPU. Can't really beat that, can you? (Well, not currently.)
Edit: And then, there's this:
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/incredible-deal-on-ryzen-r7-1800x-mircrocenter-349.2512725/
Ryzen 7 1800X for $349.99 at Microcentr.