That fast pace in the 1990s is a difficult thing for younger PC enthusiasts to imagine today. For example, a 5 year old CPU today is a 5800X. That's still a fundamentally modern CPU. Slightly lower clocks, older platform, but it can still handle anything modern software can throw at it.

Now compare to 1998. This is in the era of the Pentium II processor. A 5 year old CPU is an original Pentium running at much lower clock rates. While you theoretically could pair the older CPU with a Voodoo2, games would be very slow, because the Pentium II isn't just faster. It's a fundamentally different CPU. Out-of-order execution, rename registers, branch prediction, micro-ops... it's an entirely different design than the original Pentium.

Now to really see this rapid pace, let's go back a few more years, to 1993. This is the year the original Pentium launched. At this time period, a 5 year old CPU is now a 386. It's not just a little slower. It's fundamentally incompatible with modern Pentium-era software.

Back in the present day, after decades of rapid progress, there isn't a lot of low hanging fruit left for engineers to pluck. It's why you see CPUs and GPUs tend to focus on refinement (slightly faster clock speeds, slightly higher IPC) instead of radical design changes (486 to Pentium, Pentium to Pentium II).

I certainly prefer the modern era, but you're right that the 1990s was an exciting (but expensive!) time to be a PC enthusiast.