Image: Alexandre Debieve/Unsplash The chipset or PCH is the most important integrated circuit on a PC's motherboard (leaving aside the microprocessor). This chip is responsible for managing everything that enters or leaves the PC through USB, SATA ports, audio cards, WiFi, Ethernet, expansion in general, etc., and exchanges all this information with the microprocessor through a « DMI » or Direct Media Interface connection , a connection as fast and similar as PCIE..
Differences between chipset Z690, H670, B660 and H610 (Intel core 12 GEN)
Common 600 chipsets on mainboards. Although Intel officially indicates that the H610 chipset does not support memory overclocking (XMP), there are mainboards like the PRIME H610M-A D4 that according to ASUS do support this feature. As you can see above, depending on the chipset model that the motherboard has, certain things can be done or not done on a PC. For example, the Z690 chipset is the only one that allows you to increase the speed of the microprocessor above the limit set at the factory in processors of the "K" line (overclock).
On H610 mainboards, the NVME storage must share the connection or bandwidth to the microprocessor with the rest of the PC peripherals.
On B660/H670/Z690 mainboards the NVME storage has a dedicated connection to the processor, plus it is a direct connection, bypassing the chipset first (as on H610 motherboards). It means that NVME is always guaranteed maximum data transfer speed, regardless of the activity of the other modules or devices on the PC. A mainboard with the H610 chipset, on the other hand, has important limitations, such as the fact that there is no direct connection of the NVME disk with the CPU, but only through the chipset as an intermediary between the two. In a "mobo" with this chipset it is also not possible to do a RAID configuration of any kind, there are no PCI Express 4.0 ports and no USB 3.2 (20 Gbps) either..
DMI lanes, key in the chipset to avoid bottlenecks
Old and current Intel architecture. Before, the chipset managed the memories and main PCIE (Northbridge) as well as the rest of the peripherals (Southbridge). Now "northbridge" is built into the CPU and southbridge is the actual chipset itself. Also, the old "FSB" connection is now "DMI". Image: Wikipedia Although the workload of the chipset has been reduced as seen above, it still has to take care of all the peripherals and inputs or outputs of the PC. By input and output I mean USB devices, hard drives, NVME drives, ethernet, WiFi, ethernet, audio and expansion cards in general. If in addition to that you need to connect an NVME disk, a PCI video/screen capture card, a high-speed USB device, all these will have to "fight" for the connection to the CPU when they are working simultaneously.
Simultaneous use of several modules or peripherals on the PC, or using all the available bandwidth on the DMI 4.0 connection , may be unlikely for normal use. An H610 or B660 mainboard, whose chipset-processor connection is four lanes, may suffice..
However, for heavy use, let's say a gamer/streamer who in addition to using the graphics card and storage while gaming, is also using their audio interface, capture card, and the internet to stream to Twitch, it's likely that you'll need to go beyond all four. DMI 4.0 lanes to the eight offered by the H670 and Z690 mainboards, which in theory would mean twice the bandwidth of four lanes. In this way, a bottleneck in the system could be avoided.
Which chipset is better?
As I said before, it depends on the use that is going to be given to the computer. A mainboard with H610 chipset may be enough for a basic user, such as for students, office workers, point of sale "POS", or home multimedia system. The B660 or H670 mainboard would be suitable for those who want a more optimal, ideal or faster PC performance, such as gamers or even streamers. The Z690 mainboards are designed mainly for overclockers, that is, those users who want to get the most out of their CPU, even if it costs a lot to pay based on the little benefit they get in practical terms. There are motherboards of this type that can go up to $700. For other types of users there are the chipsets of the extreme generation of Intel,
Sources : Intel (Technical Specifications), Intel 2 (DMI), Intel 3 (Chipsets) YT GamersNexus , TechPowerUp (Chipset Comparison), AudioScienceReview (Numbers)