This YouTuber turned a Raspberry Pi Pico into a GPU, but can it compare to an RTX 4090?
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Have you ever dreamed of having a space-saving and highly affordable graphics card to equip your PC with? One YouTuber may have come up with exactly that after turning a Raspberry Pi Pico into a functioning GPU. But before you start buying these pocket-sized boards to build your rig, you’ll need to know more about its capabilities. Despite the fantastic design, this component won’t quite be able to run fast-paced, graphically demanding titles like Helldivers 2, let alone modest poker-themed roguelikes à la Balatro.
Instead, based on YouTuber element14 presents’ lengthy reel, it can only display a few lines of code at one time. During the latter portion of the video, they used the diminutive Raspberry Pi Pico to display several different versions of the classic “Hello World” tagline. So, if you plan on video editing, animating, or holding hardcore gaming sessions, you’ll still be better off purchasing the best GPU under $250 in 2025 if you want to play the latest AAA games.
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The Raspberry Pi Pico GPU isn’t quite an Nvidia or AMD GPU
After displaying its minimalistic capabilities, element14 presents eventually revealed a PCB design they came up with to make it compatible with an actual PC. Unfortunately, the finished PCIe card wasn’t available yet since the video was apparently done on short notice. However, once it’s been completed, they’ll eventually be able to show off more of its potential. But that’s a video for another day.
Though it can’t compare to the sheer power of a full-blown Nvidia or AMD graphics card, this in-depth video at least shows the possibilities any enthusiast can accomplish with this deceptively powerful piece of hardware. Of course, there’s still a ton of tinkering to be done until then. But if you want to start your own Raspberry Pi-centric experiments, we’ve got you covered. We recommend learning about the Raspberry Pi 5 release date and where to buy a Raspberry Pi 5 so you can grab the latest board immediately.
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