Given how Intel is using E-cores to bump up the core count on their Alder Lake lineup, I feel AMD can only lower the price for each model to compete. So the Ryzen 5 should be the budget series, since AMD do not have a lower end model (other than the APU) to compete. Likewise, to fend off i5 12600 and 12700, they need to drop the Ryzen 7 5800X and 5900X to be close to the price range. From a single core perspective, the Golden Cove core is a step up from AMD's Zen 3 at this point, even though it does consume more power to get there. So in this case, I feel if AMD is able to introduce a Ryzen 5 5600 at a price range that matches the 12400, then it is still going to be very good value proposition. After all, the cost of a new Intel motherboard, cooler and potentially ram is going to make the "budget" CPUs not so budget in my opinion. There will be budget chipset from Intel, but that is rumoured to arrive only next year. And even a budget motherboard from Intel generally cost more than one from AMD, without compromising on performance.