We study a possible circuit solution to overcome the problem of low voltage gain of short-channel graphene FETs. The circuit consists of a fully differential amplifier with a load made of a cross-coupled transistor pair. Starting from the device characteristics obtained from self-consistent ballistic quantum transport simulations, we explore the circuit parameter space and evaluate the amplifier performance in terms of dc voltage gain and voltage gain bandwidth. We show that the dc gain can be effectively improved by the negative differential resistance provided by the cross-coupled pair. Contact resistance is the main obstacle to achieving gain bandwidth products in the terahertz range. Limitations of the proposed amplifier are identified with its poor linearity and relatively large Miller capacitance. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.