The Northbridge

A.K.A (Memory Controller Hub, Integrated Memory Controller)

The “Northbridge,” is the small, integrated chip located on a motherboard. Commonly referred to as a composition of a motherboards chipset, the north and southbridge delegate communications between various devices throughout modern gaming systems.

How does this effect Gaming?
Specifically relating to gaming computers, the northbridge expedites communication with the PCIe or AGP slots, CPU, RAM, and southbridge. Typically, this chip operates under strenuous conditions constantly, producing a large amount of thermal energy. The use of a cooling device is beneficial for gaming motherboards, usually in the form of a small heatsink or fan.

The northbridge is positioned near the CPU and controls the fastest operating components. Namely the ones mentioned above. The northbridge connects to other devices through a system of buses, giving a motherboards “Bus Speed,” significant value in overall performance.

Each northbridge is compatible with select processors and only certain types of memory. The more advanced your components are, the more complex the associated motherboard technologies must be in order to harness each hardware devices specifications.