love my 1700x
I lost about 5fps overall in FFXIV (went from 93fps on MAX settings at 1080p to 87fps on MAX) compared to my i5-7600k
HOWEVER
I definitely can do a lot more shit like stream without problems due to core count and what not. Overall it allows me to do a lot more and overall seems to be really smooth going. BIOS updates further down the line will also only improve it more. I did notice random stuttering in rocket league the other night.....but I couldn't tell if it was my internet lol.
Unless you have multiple other tasks constantly needing CPU cycles while gaming, you probably would have been fine if you had just gotten a 7700k.
A non-HT i5 is basically only good for gaming without large scale multiplayer and gaming without multitasking. A 7700k allows gaming below ~90fps and allows moderate multitasking ala combining gaming/chrome/GPU streaming & broadcasting. Doing all of these while gaming in something like large multiplayer Battlefield servers or another very CPU intensive game IE you may need a decent overclock to stay in a comfortable zone away from the CPU ceiling when needing those same tasks in the background.
6+ core counts come into play when you want to game at higher framerates and be able to have enough headroom for multiple CPU intensive tasks while gaming. Chrome tabs actively consuming CPU cycles, CPU encoded streaming and broadcasting, server duties such as local/remote file hosting, Plex/Kodi/OTA streaming/transcoding for your household.
We are getting closer to a reality where more than 4c8t is needed for gaming itself, but unless the consoles make a shift away from 8 weak cores, then 4 much stronger cores will beat them every time, and with 8 threads to utilize, they trounce them even at stock speeds.