In the west, it borders on the East Brunswick hill country stretching from the Hildesheim Börde in Lower Saxony up to the Hohes Holz forest and the town of Oschersleben on the confluence of the Bode river and the Großer Graben canal.

According to the recent editions of the Handbook of the Natural Region Divisions of Germany, the western border north of Oschersleben roughly coincides with the Weser-Elbe watershed along the Druxberge hills.

To the north, the Börde borders on the Altmark (Letzlingen Heath), being also a part of Saxony-Anhalt; the boundary here is generally reckoned to be coincident with the river Ohre and the Mittelland Canal.

The underlying terrain mainly comprises loose morainic material from the Saale glaciation period with individual outcrops of older rock.

The highest elevation on the Magdeburg Börde is the Großer Wartberg near Niederndodeleben with a height of 145.7 m. Major settlements include Wanzleben, Irxleben, and Egeln, as well as Staßfurt and Aschersleben in the northeastern Harz foothills.