Why should a top-of-the-line GPU cost similarly? GPUs in the late 90s were designed by tiny teams, with hardly anything spent on drivers, using fabrication processes which are like paper and glue compared to today’s TSMC processes. Just because an RTX 4090 is also top-of-the-line doesn’t mean there’s an equivalency between it and a Voodoo2, because the effort required is exponentially higher.

In 1910, the most expensive comercially available passenger automobile in the US was arguably produced by Lozier, and would be around $250k today inflation-adjusted. But these days, super cars and hyper cars can go well into the millions of dollars. There is no sense comparing the top 1910 automobile market segment to the top segment in 2023. Likewise, the 1998 GPU market just does not map to that of 2023.

Oh I meant over the last 2 years. But your point stands.