Tony Vargas
Legend
Fast & Exciting sorta go together, sure. 3e definitely delivered short, high-stakes combats, both 3.0 scry/buff/teleport and 3.5 Rocket Tag. While 5e can be deadly at very low level, you have to reach beyond the encounter guidelines to get the same sorts of things going in it, and SoDs aren't what they were, either - the complaint from 3.x fans is often along the lines of 'too easy' rather than the 'too slow' leveled at 4e.Being able to combine excitement and reasonably fast play is not an unreasonably impossible goal,That doesn't mean WotC can't do it right. In this aspect, both 3E and 5E works much better.
Ironically, 4e didn't exactly have the slowest individual turns in D&D history, rather, most PCs took medium-ish length turns, rather than, as in most other eds, some classes tending to have very fast-resolving turns, and others taking much longer (especially if rules came into question). 5e relies on DM fiat to head off the latter issue - but the relative popularity of the fast-resolving fighter (more accurately, giving the most popular class concept the least/least-varied/fastest-resolving options on its turn) also helps.
But, as far as trying 4e goes - in case the OP is still listening - be aware that there's not a big difference in turn length or spotlight time from one class or role to another. Strikers tend to be a bit more brief/glorious in resolution, and Controllers a bit more involved, but nothing like the difference between a 1e fighter or 5e champion and a 1e MU or 5e neo-Vancian caster. So cycling through a round from the end of your turn to the start of your next turn can seem to take a lot longer - especially if you're used to playing the slower-resolving classes in a group that otherwise favor the faster-resolving ones.