The Simplest Graphics Card in the World

Mid last year we discovered a project by Ben Eater in which he sought to build the worst graphics card in the world, and from a technical standpoint we can say he succeeded. Inspired by that original video, George Foot decided to pursue another goal: to reduce the number of chips to a minimum and build the simplest graphics card in the world. His current design occupies two breadboards but with a little cleanup it could be much smaller…

Graphics cards are objects of desire for gamers and fundamental tools for 3D designers, but there are hardware enthusiasts out there who prefer to build them from scratch, one component at a time. One of the most interesting and best-documented cases is Ben Eater, who in July 2019 surprised us with his graphics card based on logic chips. That configuration did not offer much in terms of resolution, but its 200 x 150 pixels were enough to produce a solid image that went around the Web.

Now, what can be improved on that board? The answer is a lot, but George Foot took Eater's work as a reference and chose to go in the opposite direction, simplifying the design even further. His priority is to reduce the number of chips, and from the twenty that Eater used, he managed to get down to four, along with memory and a crystal oscillator (25.175 MHz). The trick is to program an EEPROM to place the synchronization signals there instead of following the TTL route. Obviously, these adjustments affect the final quality of the image, starting with color depth and the very shape of the pixels, more horizontal than vertical.

Even so, it is clear that George Foot succeeded. His design occupies two breadboards only for optimization reasons. If it were transferred to a PCB, it would surely use a much smaller surface, and there would not be so many headaches with connections. George has published some additional videos, including connecting his card to Ben Eater's 6502 computer, and we definitely recommend passing by his channel.

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