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Talk:Human Rights Watch

In citing that HRW is one of only two international human rights organizations in the US- dubious
Without even having to cite sources, let us do some basic defining using definitions how a middle class slightly above educated person would, what are “human rights” and what are “human rights groups/organizations/NGOs” “in the west.”

While I can think of a German group and Indian group off the top of my head, when we talk about human rights, unless explicitly mentioned, we are not describing all abused persons worldwide/discriminated people worldwide. We instead usually focus on certain issues like abortion, gay rights, principles of free speech, etc. When challenged on basis of morality such as issues pertaining to intimacy and other outcomes and practices (honor killings), sexuality, death penalty, these issues are known as “social issues”.

There are countless NGO’s and not just in the US. In fact, our European allies tend to have strong NGO’s too. There are so many ranging on a wide array of ideas. To say there are only two is too vague. Two what? International agencies functioning for human rights development? Also which NGOs exist outside the West? An example or source would be nice. Also while the UN may be considered a government, it certainly contributes a lot as do many western nations in advocacy.

Just thoughts. 2603:8080:2B40:165:70B9:E1B9:5AFB:B790 (talk) 09:10, 9 April 2022 (UTC)

 * I personally wouldn't consider India to be 'in the west', though Germany would count. The 'international' caveat is also important here, National Council for Civil Liberties for instance isn't international. One might also want to caveat that we are referring to general-purpose groups, EFF and Privacy International are both in the west and broadly international in their outlook.
 * Fundamentally, while these cardinal direction based regions ('west', 'east', 'global south', 'global north') represent real world politics, they certainly aren't very clear. ~ El D. (talk to me) 13:39, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

Few Abuses Carried out by the U.S?
Few Abuses Carried out by the U.S?

While, as mentioned above, academic Immanuel Ness writes that HRW rarely criticizes human rights abuses by the U.S and its allies, might not such concerns be addressed by this article putting out more than just a few short lines on the subject? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.149.166.209 (talk) 12:30, 6 June 2023 (UTC)

 * Your point is a fair one, but someone should bring forward additional sources to do so. Please feel free to provide sources. JArthur1984 (talk) 14:35, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
 * I'm sure there are human rights abuses in the US too, but their number with respect to such abuses in other parts of the world is so tiny, and the magnitude of the latter so much larger, to make it more likely to talk about abuses elsewhere.
 * There exist men biting dogs but you usually will hear of the reverse... 79.60.3.92 (talk) 06:31, 14 October 2023 (UTC)

Jew Tagging in this article
An editor has recently started jew-tagging this article - []. Is that wp:due? The Sausage Grinder (talk) 17:08, 24 November 2023 (UTC)

 * This is not what "jew tagging" is. Here's me actually removing actual jew tagging a few hours ago Maybe try reading the NGO Monitor article? It's an obviously partisan organisation, and that is worth mentioning in the article. Hemiauchenia (talk) 17:14, 24 November 2023 (UTC)
 * I've never heard this phrase, but the edit referred to the organization as a "pro-Israel advocacy group."
 * "Israel" should not be viewed as co-extensive with "Jews."
 * In this specific instance, I am not so convinced we need to include NGO Monitor at all. It is sourced only to a primary source and is 12 years old. I would recommend to simply delete the proposition and source. JArthur1984 (talk) 17:19, 24 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Why not attribute it in a more natural fashion? Throwing (Jewish) in parentheses is a common way to point out "outsiders". Maybe use commas? The Sausage Grinder (talk) 17:17, 24 November 2023 (UTC)
 * I would agree to the removal of the NGO Watch section entirely. Hemiauchenia (talk) 17:25, 24 November 2023 (UTC)
 * As an aside from this, the "Criticism" has severe WP:UNDUE issues. Groups that criticise Israel's treatment of Palestinians are obviously going to get blowback, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's due to include. Hemiauchenia (talk) 17:25, 24 November 2023 (UTC)
 * The word Jew or any of its forms does not appear in that diff. But NGO Monitor is a dogshit source that should only be included if other sources take their views seriously. Citing it directly, as was done here, is using an unreliable source for an insignificant view. Agree with removal.  nableezy  - 18:26, 24 November 2023 (UTC)

Also, the ARBPIA CT restrictions include talk pages, if you do not have 500 edits you may not discuss this topic on talk pages except to make a constructive edit request.  nableezy  - 18:32, 24 November 2023 (UTC)

Criticism section, problems with
The criticism contains the following statement:
 * HRW has routinely publicly addressed, and often denies, criticism of its reporting and findings.

Pages 355-376 of this book are a chapter called Numbers are only Human, Lessons for Human Right Practitioners from the Quantitative Literacy Movement by Brian Root, who describes himself as the "Quantitative Analyst at Human Rights Watch" (page 355). The chapter does not explicitly support the statement it is cited for. What the chapter does is to talk about issues with quantifying data on human rights violations and drawing conclusions from quantified data. -- Toddy1 (talk) 17:50, 24 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Removed. Hemiauchenia (talk) 18:32, 24 November 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Human Rights Watch


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Caliber

In guns, particularly firearms, but not artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore matches that specification. It is measured in inches or in millimeters. In the United States it is expressed in hundredths of an inch; in the United Kingdom in thousandths; and elsewhere in millimeters. For example, a US "45 caliber" firearm has a barrel diameter of roughly 0.45 inches (11.43mm). Barrel diameters can also be expressed using metric dimensions. For example, a "9 mm pistol" has a barrel diameter of about 9 millimeters. Since metric and US customary units do not convert evenly at this scale, metric conversions of caliber measured in decimal inches are typically approximations of the precise specifications in non-metric units, and vice versa.

In a rifled barrel, the distance is measured between opposing lands or between opposing grooves; groove measurements are common in cartridge designations originating in the United States, while land measurements are more common elsewhere in the world. Measurements "across the grooves" are used for maximum precision because rifling and the specific caliber so measured is the result of final machining process which cuts grooves into the rough bore, leaving the "lands" behind.

Good performance requires a concentric, straight bore that accurately centers the projectile within the barrel, in preference to a "tight" fit which can be achieved even with off-center, crooked bores that cause excessive friction, fouling and an out-of-balance, wobbling projectile in flight.

Calibers fall into four general categories by size:

 * miniature-bore historically refers to calibers with a diameter of 0.22 in or smaller
 * small-bore refers to calibers with a diameter of 0.32 in or smaller
 * medium-bore refers to calibers with a diameter of 0.33 in to 0.39 in
 * large-bore refers to calibers with a diameter of 0.40 in or larger

There is much variance in the use of the term "small-bore", which over the years has changed considerably, with anything under 0.577 in considered "small-bore" prior to the mid-19th century.

Cartridge naming conventions
While modern firearms are generally referred to by the name of the cartridge the gun is chambered for, they are still categorized together based on bore diameter. For example, a firearm might be described as a "30 caliber rifle", which could accommodate any of a wide range of cartridges using a roughly 0.30 in projectile; or as a "22 rimfire", referring to any rimfire firearms firing cartridges with a 22 caliber projectile. However, there can be significant differences in nominal bullet and bore dimensions, and all cartridges so "categorized" are not automatically identical in actual caliber.

For example, 303 British firearms and projectiles are often "categorized" as ".30-caliber" alongside several dozen U.S. "30-caliber" cartridges despite using bullets of .310 – diameter while all U.S. "30-caliber" centerfire rifle cartridges use a common, standard .308 in bullet outside diameter. Using bullets larger than design specifications causes excessive pressures, while undersize bullets cause low pressures, insufficient muzzle velocities and fouling that will eventually lead to excessive pressures.

Makers of early cartridge arms had to invent methods of naming cartridges since no established convention existed then. One of the early established cartridge arms was the Spencer repeating rifle, which Union forces used in the American Civil War. It was named based on the chamber dimensions, rather than the bore diameter, with the earliest cartridge called the "No. 56 cartridge", indicating a chamber diameter of .56 in; the bore diameter varied considerably, from .52 to .54 in. Later various derivatives were created using the same basic cartridge, but with smaller-diameter bullets; these were named by the cartridge diameter at the base and mouth. The original No. 56 became the .56-56, and the smaller versions, .56-52, .56-50, and .56-46. The 56–52, the most common of the new calibers, used a 50-cal bullet.

Other black powder-era cartridges used naming schemes that appeared similar, but measured entirely different characteristics; 45-70, 44-40, and 32-20 were designated by bullet diameter to hundredths of an inch and standard black powder charge in grains. Optionally, the bullet weight in grains was designated, such as 45-70-405. This scheme was far more popular and was carried over after the advent of early smokeless powder cartridges such as the 30-30 Winchester and 22 Long. Later developments used terms to indicate relative power, such as .44 Special and .44 Magnum. Variations on these methods persist today, with new cartridges such as the 204 Ruger and 17 HMR (Hornady Magnum Rimfire).

Metric diameters for small arms refer to cartridge dimensions and are expressed with an "×" between the bore diameter and the length of the cartridge case; for example, the 6.5×55mm Swedish cartridge has a bore diameter of 6.5 mm and a case length of 55 mm.

The means of measuring a rifled bore varies, and may refer to the diameter of the lands or the grooves of the rifling. For example, the 257 Roberts and 250 Savage both use a .257 inch projectile; both 250 Savage and 257 Roberts rifle bores have a .250 inch land diameter and .257 inch groove diameter. The .308 Winchester is measured across the grooves and uses a .308-in diameter (7.82-mm) bullet; the military-specification version is known as 7.62 × 51 mm NATO, so called because the bore diameter measured between the lands is 7.62 mm, and the cartridge has a case 51 mm long.

Rifle caliber and cartridge conversions
Converting a rifle to fire a different cartridge in the same bore diameter, often involves merely re-chambering the barrel to the new cartridge dimensions, if the rim diameter of the new cartridge matches that of the old cartridge. Converting a rifle to fire a different cartridge in a different caliber and bore as what it initially was, means that the barrel of the rifle will also need to be changed. Because many competitive precision rifle shooters often shoot thousands of rounds per year both for practice and competitions, and they more often reach the end of their barrel life, whereby the rifling is worn down to a point where a rifle loses some of its accuracy, the choice to make a caliber or cartridge change is often done at the same time as when a new rifle barrel is fitted to the rifle by a gunsmith. There are a few important factors to consider when converting a rifle to a different caliber or cartridge. The action of the rifle should be long enough to contain the new cartridge, the magazine should also be able to hold the new cartridge, the bolt face should be the correct diameter and the extractor the correct size to hold the head of the new cartridge. The most common of these caliber conversions on rifles, are usually done to change from a parent cartridge to a new cartridge based on it, like when converting a rifle to a 6.5 mm Creedmoor from a 308 Winchester on which it is based.

Metric and US customary
The following table lists some of the commonly used calibers where both metric and US customary units are used as equivalents. Due to variations in naming conventions, and the whims of the cartridge manufacturers, bullet diameters can vary widely from the diameter implied by the name. For example, a difference of 0.045 in (1.15 mm) occurs between the smallest and largest of the several cartridges designated as ".38 caliber".

Shotguns
Shotguns are classed according to gauge, a related expression. The gauge of a shotgun refers to how many lead spheres, each with a diameter equal to that of the bore, that amounts to one pound (454 g (1.0 lb)) in weight. In the case of a 12-gauge (18.5 mm) shotgun, it would take 12 spheres the size of the shotgun's bore to equal a pound. A numerically larger gauge indicates a smaller barrel: a 20-gauge (15.6 mm) shotgun requires more spheres to equal a pound; therefore, its barrel is smaller than the 12-gauge. This metric is used in Russia as "caliber number": e.g., "shotgun of the 12 caliber." The 16th caliber is known as "lordly" (барский). While shotgun bores can be expressed in calibers (the .410 bore shotgun is measured as .410 in in diameter, unlike with rifles the actual bore diameter of a smoothbore shotgun varies significantly down the length of the barrel, with the use of chokes and back-boring.

In the United Kingdom, "gauge" is referred to as "bore" and in the United States "bore" is referred to as "gauge", e.g. a "12-bore shotgun or 12-gauge shotgun" has a bore or gauge that can accommodate a lead sphere weighing 1/12th of a pound.

As a measurement of length
The term caliber is used as a measure of length of artillery barrels from muzzle to breech, expressed as a multiple of the bore diameter. For example, a 4-inch gun of 50 calibers would have a barrel 4 in × 50 = 200 in long (written as 4" L/50 or 4"/50). A 16-inch gun of 50 calibers (16" L/50) has a barrel length of 50 × 16 = 800 in.

Both 14-in and 16-in navy guns were common in World War II. The British Royal Navy insisted on 50-cal guns on ships as it would allow 1,900 to 2,700 lb shells to travel at an initial velocity of up to 1,800 mph (2,897 km/h) to a distance of 26 mi (42 km).

Pounds as a measure of cannon bore
Smoothbore cannon and carronade bores are designated by the weight in imperial pounds of spherical solid iron shot of diameter to fit the bore. Standard sizes are 6, 12, 18, 24, 32, and 42 pounds, with some non-standard weights using the same scheme. See Carronade.

From about the mid-17th until the mid-19th century, the measurement of the bore of large gunpowder weapons was usually expressed as the weight of its iron shot in pounds. Iron shot was used as the standard reference because iron was the most common material used for artillery ammunition during that period, and solid spherical shot the most common form encountered. Artillery was classified thereby into standard categories, with the 3-pounder, 4-pounder, 6-pounder, 8-pounder, 9-pounder, 12-pounder, 18-pounder, 24-pounder, and 32-pounder being the most common sizes encountered, although larger, smaller and intermediate sizes existed.

In practice, though, significant variation occurred in the actual mass of the projectile for a given nominal shot weight. The country of manufacture is a significant consideration when determining bore diameters. For example, the French livre, until 1812, had a mass of 489.5 g, whilst the contemporary English (avoirdupois) pound massed of approximately 454 g. Thus, a French 32-pounder at the Battle of Trafalgar threw a shot with 1.138 kg more mass than an English 32-pounder.

Complicating matters further, muzzle-loaded weapons require a significant gap between the sides of the tube bore and the surface of the shot. This is necessary so the projectile may be inserted from the mouth to the base of the tube and seated securely adjacent the propellant charge with relative ease. The gap, called windage, increases the size of the bore with respect to the diameter of the shot somewhere between 10% and 20% depending upon the year the tube was cast and the foundry responsible.

The relationship between bore diameter and projectile weight was severed following the widespread adoption of rifled weapons during the latter part of the 19th century. Guns continued to be classed by projectile weight into the mid-20th century, particularly in British service with guns, such as the 2-pounder, 6-pounder, and 17-pounder anti-tank weapons. However, this value no longer definitively related to bore diameter, since projectiles were no longer simple spheres—and in any case were more often hollow shells filled with explosives rather than solid iron shot.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Caliber


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College of William & Mary

The College of William & Mary in Virginia (abbreviated as W&M ), is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III and Queen Mary II, it is the second-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and the ninth-oldest in the English-speaking world. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High Research Activity". In his 1985 book Public Ivies: A Guide to America's Best Public Undergraduate Colleges and Universities, Richard Moll included William & Mary as one of the original eight "Public Ivies". The university is also one of the original nine colonial colleges.

The college educated American Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John Tyler. It also educated other key figures pivotal to the development of the United States, including the first President of the Continental Congress Peyton Randolph, the first U.S. Attorney General Edmund Randolph, the fourth U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, Speaker of the House of Representatives Henry Clay, Commanding General of the U.S. Army Winfield Scott, sixteen members of the Continental Congress, and four signers of the Declaration of Independence. Its connections with many Founding Fathers of the United States earned it the nickname "the Alma Mater of the Nation". George Washington received his surveyor's license from the college in 1749, and later became the college's first American chancellor in 1788. That position was long held by the bishops of London and archbishops of Canterbury, though in modern times has been held by U.S. Supreme Court justices, Cabinet secretaries, and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Benjamin Franklin received William & Mary's first honorary degree in 1756.

William & Mary is notable for its many firsts in American higher education. The F.H.C. Society, founded in 1750, was the first collegiate fraternity in the United States, and W&M students founded the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society in 1776, the first Greek-letter fraternity. In 1736, W&M became the first school of higher education in the future United States to install a student honor code of conduct. It is the only American university issued a coat of arms by the College of Arms in London. The establishment of graduate programs in law and medicine in 1779 makes it one of the first universities in the United States. The William & Mary Law School is the oldest law school in the United States, and the Wren Building, attributed to and named for the famed English architect Sir Christopher Wren, is the oldest academic building still standing in the United States.

Colonial era (1693–1776)
A school of higher education for both Native American young men and the sons of the colonists was one of the earliest goals of the leaders of the Colony of Virginia. The college was founded on February 8, 1693, under a royal charter to "make, found and establish a certain Place of Universal Study, a perpetual College of Divinity, Philosophy, Languages, and other good arts and sciences ... to be supported and maintained, in all time coming." Named in honor of the reigning monarchs King William III and Queen Mary II, the college is the second-oldest college in the United States. The original plans for the college date back to 1618 at Henrico but were thwarted by the Indian Massacre of 1622, a change in government (in 1624, the Virginia Company's charter was revoked by King James I and the Virginia Colony was transferred to royal authority as a crown colony), events related to the English Civil War, and Bacon's Rebellion. In 1695, before the town of Williamsburg existed, construction began on the College Building, now known as the Sir Christopher Wren Building, in what was then called Middle Plantation (Virginia). It is the oldest college building in America. The college is one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution. The charter named James Blair as the college's first president (a lifetime appointment which he held until his death in 1743). William & Mary was founded as an Anglican institution; students were required to be members of the Church of England, and professors were required to declare adherence to the Thirty-Nine Articles.

In 1693, the college was given a seat in the House of Burgesses and it was determined the college would be supported by tobacco taxes and export duties on furs and animal skins. The college acquired a 330 acre parcel for the new school, 8 mi from Jamestown. In 1694, the new school opened in temporary buildings.

Williamsburg was granted a royal charter as a city in 1722 by The Crown and served as the capital of Colonial Virginia from 1699 to 1780. During this time, the college served as a law center and lawmakers frequently used its buildings. It educated future U.S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John Tyler. The college has been called "the Alma Mater of a Nation" because of its close ties to America's founding fathers, as well as figures pivotal to the development and expansion of the United States. George Washington, who received his surveyor's license through the college despite never attending, was the college's first American chancellor. William & Mary is famous for its firsts: the first U.S. institution with a royal charter, the first Greek-letter society (Phi Beta Kappa, founded in 1776), the first collegiate society in the country (F.H.C. Society, founded in 1750), the first student honor code and the first collegiate law school in America.

Revolution and transition
During the period of the American Revolution, freedom of religion was established in Virginia notably with the 1786 passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Future U.S. President James Madison was a key figure in the transition to religious freedom in Virginia, and Right Reverend James Madison, his cousin and Thomas Jefferson, who was on the Board of Visitors, helped the College of William & Mary to make the transition as well. In 1779 the college established graduate schools in law and medicine, making it one of the institutions that claims to be the first university in the United States. As its president, Reverend Madison worked with the new leaders of Virginia, most notably Jefferson, on a reorganization and changes for the college which included the abolition of the Divinity School and the Indian School and the establishment of the first elective system of study and honor system.

The College of William & Mary is home to the nation's first collegiate secret society, the F.H.C. Society, popularly known as the Flat Hat Club, founded on November 11, 1750. On December 5, 1776, students John Heath and William Short (class of 1779) founded Phi Beta Kappa as a secret literary and philosophical society. Other secret societies known to currently exist at the college include: The 7 Society, 13 Club, Alpha Club, Bishop James Madison Society, The Society, The Spades, W Society, and Wren Society.

Thomas R. Dew, professor of history, metaphysics, and political economy, and then president of William & Mary from 1836 until his death in 1846, was an influential academic defender of slavery.

In 1842, alumni of the college formed the Society of the Alumni which is now the sixth oldest alumni organization in the United States. In 1859, a great fire destroyed the College Building. The Alumni House is one of the few original antebellum structures remaining on campus; notable others include the Wren Building, the President's House, the Brafferton, and Prince George House.

Civil War, Reconstruction, and the early 20th century
At the outset of the American Civil War (1861–1865), enlistments in the Confederate States Army depleted the student body; and on May 10, 1861, the faculty voted to close the college for the duration of the conflict. General Charles A. Whittier reported that "thirty-two out of thirty-five professors and instructors abandoned the college work and joined the army in the field". The College Building was used as a Confederate barracks and later as a hospital, first by Confederate, and later Union forces. The Battle of Williamsburg was fought nearby during the Peninsula Campaign on May 5, 1862, and the city was captured by the Union army the next day. The Brafferton building of the college was used for a time as quarters for the commanding officer of the Union garrison occupying the town. On September 9, 1862, drunken soldiers of the 5th Pennsylvania Cavalry set fire to the College Building, purportedly in an attempt to prevent Confederate snipers from using it for cover.

Following the restoration of the Union, Virginia was destitute. The college's 16th president, Benjamin Stoddert Ewell, finally reopened the school in 1869 using his funds but the college closed again in 1882 due to insufficient funding. In 1888, William & Mary resumed operations under an amended charter when the Commonwealth of Virginia passed an act appropriating $10,000 to support the college as a teacher-training institution. Lyon Gardiner Tyler (son of US President and alumnus John Tyler) became the 17th president of the college following Ewell's retirement. Tyler, along with his successor J. A. C. Chandler, expanded the college. in 1896, Minnie Braithwaite Jenkins was the first woman to attempt to take classes at William & Mary, although her petition was denied. In March 1906, the General Assembly passed an act taking over the college grounds, and it has remained publicly supported ever since. In 1918, it was one of the first universities in Virginia to admit women. Enrollment increased from 104 students in 1889 to 1269 students by 1932.

W. A. R. Goodwin, rector at Bruton Parish Church and professor of biblical literature and religious education at the college, pursued benefactors who could support the restoration of Williamsburg. Goodwin considered Williamsburg "as the original training and testing ground" of the United States. Goodwin persuaded John D. Rockefeller Jr. to initiate the restoration of Williamsburg in 1926, leading to the establishment of Colonial Williamsburg. Goodwin had initially only pursued Rockefeller to help fund the construction of Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall, but had convinced Rockefeller to participate in a broader restoration effort when he visited William & Mary for the hall's dedication. While the college's administration was less supportive of the restoration efforts than many others in Williamsburg–prior to the Colonial Williamsburg project, the William & Mary campus was Williamsburg's primary tourist attraction–the college's cooperation was secured. Restoration paid for by Rockefeller's program extended to the college, with the Wren Building restored in 1928–1931, President's House in 1931, and Brafferton in 1931–1932.

1930–present
In 1930, William & Mary established a branch in Norfolk, Virginia called The Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary; it eventually became the independent state-supported institution known as Old Dominion University.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt received an honorary degree from the college on October 20, 1934. In 1935, the Sunken Garden was constructed, just west of the Wren Building. The sunken design is taken from a similar landscape feature at Royal Hospital Chelsea in London, designed by Sir Christopher Wren.

In 1945 the editor-in-chief of The Flat Hat, Marilyn Kaemmerle, wrote an editorial "Lincoln's Job Half-Done..." that supported the end of racial segregation, anti-miscegenation laws and white supremacy; the university administration removed her from the newspaper and nearly expelled her. According to Time magazine, in response, over one-thousand William & Mary students held "a spirited mass meeting protesting infringement of the sacred principles of freedom of the press bequeathed by Alumnus Thomas Jefferson." She was allowed to graduate but future editors had to discuss "controversial writings" with faculty before printing. The college Board of Visitors apologized to her in the 1980s. The college admitted Hulon Willis into a graduate program in 1951 because the program was unavailable at Virginia State. However, the college did not open all programs to African-American students until around 1970.

In 1960, The Colleges of William & Mary, a short-lived five campus university system, was founded. It included the College of William & Mary, the Richmond Professional Institute, the Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary, Christopher Newport College, and Richard Bland College. It was dissolved in 1962, with only Richard Bland College remaining officially associated with the College of William and Mary at the present day.

In 1974, Jay Winston Johns willed Highland, the 535 acre historic Albemarle County, Virginia estate of alumnus and U.S. President James Monroe, to the college. The college restored this historic presidential home near Charlottesville and opened it to the public.

Jefferson Hall, a student dormitory, was destroyed by fire on January 20, 1983, with no casualties. The building, including the destroyed west wing, was later rebuilt and reopened.

On July 25, 2012, Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS), in nearby Norfolk, Virginia, made a joint announcement with William & Mary that the two schools were considering merging, with the prospect that EVMS would become the William & Mary School of Medicine. Any such merger would have to be confirmed by the two schools and then confirmed by the Virginia General Assembly and Governor. A pilot relationship, supported by a $200,000 grant in the Virginia budget, was subsequently agreed upon by both universities to examine this possible union in reality.

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, William & Mary has retained its historic ties to the United Kingdom and that state's royal family. In 1954, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother visited William & Mary as part of her tour of the United States, becoming the first member of the royal family to visit the college. In 1957, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, visited the college to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the landing at Jamestown. Queen Elizabeth gave a speech from the balcony of the Wren Building that drew over 20,000 people, the largest crowd ever seen in the city. In 1981, Charles, Prince of Wales, visited to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Yorktown. In 1988, the United States Congress selected William & Mary to send a delegation to the United Kingdom for the 300th anniversary of the ascension of King William III and Queen Mary II. Prince Charles would return to the college in 1993 for the 300th anniversary of William & Mary, and that same year William & Mary sent a delegation to meet with Queen Elizabeth II. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher would be made the Chancellor of the College of William & Mary that same year. In 2007, Elizabeth II and Prince Philip would visit the college for a second time to recognize the 400th anniversary of the landing at Jamestown. In 2022, a beacon was lit in front of the Wren Building to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

Campus
The college is on a 1200 acre campus in Williamsburg, Virginia. In 2011, Travel+Leisure named William & Mary one of the most beautiful college campuses in the United States.

The Sir Christopher Wren Building is the oldest college building in the United States and a National Historic Landmark. The building, colloquially referred to as the "Wren Building", was named upon its renovation in 1931 to honor the English architect Sir Christopher Wren. The basis for the 1930s name is a 1724 history in which mathematics professor Hugh Jones stated the 1699 design was "first modelled by Sir Christopher Wren" and then was adapted "by the Gentlemen there" in Virginia; little is known about how it looked since it burned within a few years of its completion. Today's Wren Building is based on the design of its 1716 replacement. The college's alumni association has suggested Wren's connection to the 1931 building is a viable subject of investigation.

Two other buildings around the Wren Building compose an area known as "Ancient" or "Historic Campus": the Brafferton (built within 1723 and originally housing the Indian School, now the President and Provost's offices) and the President's House (built within 1732). In addition to the Ancient Campus, which dates to the 18th century, the college also consists of "Old Campus" and "New Campus". "Old Campus", adjacent to Ancient Campus, surrounds the Sunken Garden. Adjoining "Old Campus" to the north and west is "New Campus". It was constructed primarily between 1950 and 1980, and it consists of academic buildings and dormitories that, while of the same brick construction as "Old Campus", fit into the vernacular of modern architecture. Beginning with the college's tercentenary in 1993, the college has embarked on a building and renovation program that favors the traditional architectural style of "Old Campus", while incorporating energy-efficient technologies. Several buildings constructed since the 1990s have been LEED certified. Additionally, as the buildings of "New Campus" are renovated after decades of use, several have been remodeled to incorporate more traditional architectural elements to unify the appearance of the entire college campus. "New Campus" is dominated by William and Mary Hall, Earl Gregg Swem Library, and formerly Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall. It also includes the offices and classrooms of the Mathematics, Physics, Psychology, Biology, and Chemistry Departments, the majority of freshman dormitories, the fraternity complex, the majority of the college's athletic fields and the Muscarelle Museum of Art. The newest addition to "New Campus" is Alan B. Miller Hall, the headquarters of the college's Mason School of Business.

The recent wave of construction at William & Mary has resulted in a new building for the School of Education, not far from Kaplan Hall (formerly William and Mary Hall). The offices and classrooms of the Government, Economics, and Classical Language Departments, share John E. Boswell Hall (formerly "Morton Hall") on "New Campus". These departments have been piecemeal separated and relocated to buildings recently renovated within the "Old Campus", such as Chancellors' Hall.

The vast majority of William & Mary's 1200 acre consists of woodlands and Lake Matoaka, an artificial lake created by colonists in the early 18th century.

Following the George Floyd protests and associated movements as well as student and faculty pressure in 2020 and 2021, several buildings, halls, and other entities were renamed. Maury Hall (named for Confederate sailor Matthew Fontaine Maury) on the Virginia Institute of Marine Science campus and Trinkle Hall (named for Governor Elbert Lee Trinkle) of Campus Center were renamed in September 2020 to York River Hall and Unity Hall respectively. In April 2021, three buildings were renamed at following a vote by the Board of Visitors: Morton Hall (named for professor Richard Lee Morton) to John E. Boswell Hall (for LGBT advocate and alum John Boswell), Taliaferro Hall (named for Confederate General William Taliaferro) to Hulon L. Willis Sr. Hall (Hulon Willis Sr. was the first Black student at the college), and Tyler Hall (named for President John Tyler and his son) to its original name of Chancellors' Hall (the hall had been renamed in 1988).

Organization and administration
The Board of Visitors is a corporation established by the General Assembly of Virginia to govern and supervise the operation of the College of William & Mary and of Richard Bland College. The corporation is composed of 17 members appointed by the Governor of Virginia, based upon the recommendations made by the Society of the Alumni, to a maximum of two-successive four-year terms. The Board elects a Rector, Vice-Rector, and Secretary and the Board meets four times annually. The Board is responsible for appointing a president, related administrative officers, and an honorary chancellor, approving degrees, admission policies, departments, and schools, and executing the fiduciary duties of supervising the college's property and finances.

The Chancellor of the College of William & Mary is largely a ceremonial role. Until 1776, the position was held by an English subject, usually the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Bishop of London, who served as the college's advocate to the Crown, while a colonial President oversaw the day-to-day activities of the Williamsburg campus. Following the Revolutionary War, General George Washington was appointed as the first American chancellor; later United States President John Tyler held the post. The college has recently had several distinguished chancellors: former Chief Justice of the United States Warren E. Burger (1986–1993), former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1993–2000), former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (2000–2005), and former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (2005–2012). Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, himself an alumnus of the college, succeeded O'Connor in February 2012.

The Board of Visitors delegates to a president the operating responsibility and accountability for the administrative, fiscal, and academic performance of the college as well as representing the college on public occasions such as conferral of degrees. W. Taylor Reveley III, 27th President of the college, served from 2008 to 2018. In February 2018, The Board of Visitors unanimously elected Katherine A. Rowe as Reveley's successor. Rowe is the first female president to serve the college since its founding.

Faculty members are organized into separate faculties of the Faculty of Arts and Science as well as those for the respective schools of Business, Education, Law, and Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Each faculty is presided over by a dean, who reports to the provost, and governs itself through separate by-laws approved by the Board of Visitors. The faculty are also represented by a faculty assembly that serves to advise the president and provost.

The Royal Hospital School, an independent boarding school in the United Kingdom, is a sister institution.

Academics
The College of William & Mary is a medium-sized, highly residential, public research university. The focal point of the university is its four-year, full-time undergraduate program which constitutes most of the institution's enrollment. The college has a strong undergraduate arts & sciences focus, with a select number of graduate programs in diverse fields ranging from American colonial history to marine science. The college offers four academic programs in its Washington, DC office, an undergraduate joint degree program in engineering with Columbia University, as well as a liberal arts joint degree program with the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

The graduate programs are dominant in STEM fields and the university has a high level of research activity. For the 2016–17 academic year, 1,591 undergraduate, 652 masters, and 293 doctoral degrees were conferred. William & Mary is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

The college is organized into one faculty and four schools:
 * Faculty of Arts and Sciences
 * Raymond A. Mason School of Business
 * School of Education
 * Law School
 * School of Marine Science at Virginia Institute of Marine Science

W&M provides a "small college environment" and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio of 12-to-1 (the second lowest among U.S. public universities), thereby fostering student-professor interaction. A notable 99% of all undergraduate classes, excluding labs, are taught by professors (not teaching assistants) and 86% of all classes contain 40 or fewer students.

William & Mary offers exchange programs with 15 foreign schools, drawing more than 12% of its undergraduates into these programs, and receives U.S. State Department grants to further expand its foreign exchange programs.

Student body and admissions
William & Mary enrolled 6,285 undergraduate and 2,455 postgraduate students in Fall 2018. Women made up 57.6% of the undergraduate and 50.7% of the graduate student bodies.

Admission to W&M is considered "most selective" according to U.S. News & World Report. There were 17,400 applications for admission to the class of 2025 (enrolling fall 2021): 5,200 will likely be admitted (29.9%) and approximately 1,590 will enroll (an admissions yield of 32%). The average high school GPA of enrolled freshmen was 4.24, and 94.2% had a high school GPA of 3.75 or higher. The middle 50% range on SAT scores was 660–730 for reading and 650–760 for math, while the ACT Composite middle 50% range was 30–33.

Undergraduate tuition for 2016–2017 was $13,127 for Virginia residents and $36,158 for out-of-state students. W&M granted over $20.9 million in need-based scholarships in 2014–2015 to 1,734 undergraduates (27.5% of the undergraduate student body); 37% of the student body received loans, and average student indebtedness was $26,017. Research of William & Mary students published in 2016 and 2017 showed they hailed from overwhelmingly wealthy student family backgrounds, even as compared to other elite public institutions. The college is need-blind for domestic applicants.

Rankings
In the 2022–23 U.S. News & World Report rankings, W&M ranks as tied for the 13th-best public university in the United States, tied for 41st-best national university in the U.S., and tied for 624th-best university in the world. U.S. News & World Report also rated William & Mary's undergraduate teaching as the 4th best (tied with Princeton University) among 73 national universities and 13th best for Undergraduate Research/Creative Projects in its 2021 rankings.

For 2019 Kiplinger ranked William & Mary 6th out of 174 best-value public colleges and universities in the U.S.

In the 2019 "America's Top Colleges" ranking by Forbes, W&M was ranked the 9th best public college and 47th out of the 650 best private and public colleges and universities in the U.S. W&M ranked 3rd for race and class interaction in The Princeton Review's 2018 rankings. The college was ranked as the public college with the smartest students in the nation according to Business Insider 2014 survey.

The undergraduate business program was ranked 12th among undergraduate programs by the 2016 Bloomberg Businessweek survey. Also in 2020, was W&M ranked 4th for "Colleges with the Happiest Students" by The Princeton Review and 9th in a list of the public universities that "pay off the most", according to CNBC.

Publications
The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture publishes the William and Mary Quarterly, a scholarly journal focusing on colonial history, particularly in North America and the Atlantic World from the Age of Discovery onward.

In addition to the Quarterly, W&M, by its mission to provide undergraduates with a thorough grounding in research also hosts several student journals. The Monitor is the undergraduate journal of International Studies which publishes on a bi-annual basis. The Lyon Gardiner Tyler Department of History also supports an undergraduate history journal, The James Blair Historical Review, which publishes on an annual basis.

Non-academic publications include The William & Mary Review – the college's official literary magazine – Winged Nation – a student literary arts magazine, Acropolis – the art and art history magazine, The Flat Hat – the student newspaper, The Botetourt Squat – the student satirical newspaper, The Colonial Echo – the college's yearbook, The DoG Street Journal – a daily online newspaper, and Rocket Magazine – the college's fashion, art, and photography publication.

Faculty
Since the 17th century, many prominent academics have chosen to teach at William & Mary. Distinguished faculty include the first professor of law in the United States, George Wythe (who taught Henry Clay, John Marshall, and Thomas Jefferson, among others); William Small (Thomas Jefferson's cherished mentor); William and Thomas Dawson, who were also presidents of William & Mary. Also, the founder and first president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – William Barton Rogers – taught chemistry at William & Mary (which was also Professor Barton's alma mater). Several members of the socially elite and politically influential Tucker family, including Nathaniel Beverley, St. George, and Henry St. George Tucker Sr. (who penned the original honor code pledge for the University of Virginia that remains in use there today), taught at William & Mary.

More recently, William & Mary recruited the constitutional scholar William Van Alstyne from Duke Law School. Lawrence Wilkerson, current Harriman Visiting Professor of Government and Public Policy, was chief of staff for Colin Powell. Susan Wise Bauer is an author and founder of Peace Hill Press who teaches writing and American literature at the college. James Axtell, who teaches history, was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as a Fellow in 2004. Iyabo Obasanjo, a previous senator of Nigeria and daughter of former President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, also serves as faculty in Kinesiology & Health Sciences.

Professor Benjamin Bolger – the second-most credentialed person in modern history behind Michael Nicholson – taught at W&M.

Student life

The college enjoys a temperate climate. In addition to the college's extensive student recreation facilities (which include a large gym, a rock-climbing wall, and many exercise rooms) and programs (facilitating involvement in outdoor recreation, as well as club and intramural sports), the largely wooded campus has its own lake and outdoor amphitheater. The Virginia Beach oceanfront is 60 mi away, and Washington, D.C. is a 150 mi drive to the north. Also, the beaches of the Delmarva Peninsula are just a few hours away via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

The college's Alma Mater Productions (AMP) hosts concerts, comedians, and speakers on campus and in the 8,600-person capacity Kaplan Arena, as well as putting on many smaller activity-based events. Students produce several publications on campus, including the official student newspaper The Flat Hat, arts and fashion magazine Rocket Magazine, and the satirical newspaper The Botetourt Squat. The school's television station, WMTV, produces content in the categories of cuisine, comedy, travel, and sports. Everyday Gourmet, the former flagship production of the station, was featured in USA Today in 2009. WCWM, the college's student-run public radio station, transmits 24 hours a day on 90.9 FM locally and online and features student-curated and created content; they also put on an annual concert, WCWM Fest, featuring local and touring musicians.

The college also hosts several prominent student-run culture- and identity-based organizations. These include the Black Student Organization, Catholic Campus Ministry, Hillel (the college's official Jewish student group), Asian American Student Initiative, Latin American Student Union, Lambda Alliance and Rainbow Coalition, and the Middle Eastern Students Association, among many others.

The college's International Relations Club (IRC) ranked eleventh of twenty-five participants in the 2020–2021 North American College Model U.N.

Traditions
William & Mary has several traditions, including the Yule Log Ceremony, at which the president dresses as Santa Claus and reads a rendition of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", the Vice-President of Student Affairs reads "Twas the Night Before Finals", and The Gentlemen of the College sing the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas". Christmas is a grand celebration at the college; decorated Christmas trees abound on campus. This popular tradition started when German immigrant Charles Minnigerode, a humanities professor at the college in 1842 who taught Latin and Greek, brought one of the first Christmas trees to America. Entering into the social life of post-colonial Virginia, Minnigerode introduced the German custom of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas at the home of law professor St. George Tucker, thereby becoming another of many influences that prompted Americans to adopt the practice at about that time.

Incoming freshmen participate in Opening Convocation, at which they pass through the entrance of the Wren Building and are officially welcomed as the newest members of the college. Freshmen also have the opportunity, during orientation week, to serenade the president of the college at his home with the Alma Mater song. The Senior Walk is similar, in that graduating seniors walk through the Wren Building in their "departure" from the college. On the last day of classes, Seniors are invited to ring the bell in the cupola of the Wren Building.

W&M also takes pride in its connections to its colonial past during Charter Day festivities. Charter Day is technically February 8, based on the date (from the Julian Calendar) that the Reverend James Blair, first president of the college received the charter from the Court of William III and Mary II at Kensington Palace in 1693. Past Charter Day speakers have included former US President John Tyler, Henry Kissinger, Margaret Thatcher, and Robert Gates.

Another underground tradition at W&M is known as the "Triathlon". As reported by The Flat Hat, the tradition - normally performed prior to graduation - involves completing three activities: jumping the walls of the Governor's Palace in Colonial Williamsburg, streaking through the Sunken Garden, and finally swimming in the Crim Dell. The tradition has been referred to as an underground one and is not sanctioned by the college but is still widely practiced.

Student Assembly
The Student Assembly is the student government organization serving undergraduates and graduates. It allocates a student organization budget and funds services, advocates for student rights, and is the formal student representation to the City of Williamsburg and William & Mary administration. It consists of Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. The president and vice president are elected jointly by the student body to lead the Executive Branch, and each class elects one class president and four senators who serve in the Senate (the Legislative Branch). The five graduate schools appoint one to two senators. The Cabinet consists of 10 departments managed by secretaries and undersecretaries.

Honor system
William & Mary's honor system was first established by alumnus Thomas Jefferson in 1779 and is widely believed to be the nation's first. During the orientation week, every entering student recites the Honor Pledge in the Great Hall of the Wren Building pledging: "As a Member of the William & Mary community I pledge, on my Honor, not to lie, cheat, or steal in either my academic or personal life. I understand that such acts violate the Honor Code and undermine the community of trust of which we are all stewards."

The basis of W&M's Honor Pledge was written over 150 years ago by alumnus and law professor Henry St. George Tucker Sr. While teaching law at the University of Virginia, Tucker proposed students attach a pledge to all exams confirming on their honor they did not receive any assistance. Tucker's honor pledge was the early basis of the Honor System at the University of Virginia. At W&M, the Honor System stands as one of the college's most important traditions; it remains student-administered through the Honor Council with the advice of the faculty and administration of the college. The college's Honor System is codified such that students found guilty of cheating, stealing or lying are subject to sanctions ranging anywhere from a verbal warning up to expulsion.

W&M considers the observance of public laws of equal importance to the observance of its particular regulations. William & Mary's Board of Visitors delegates authority for discipline to its president. The President oversees a hierarchy of disciplinary authorities to enforce local laws as it pertains to William & Mary's interest as well as its internal regulatory system.

Fraternities and sororities
William & Mary has a long history of fraternities and sororities dating back to 1750 and the founding of the F.H.C. Society, the first collegiate fraternity established in what now is the United States. Phi Beta Kappa, the first "Greek-letter" fraternity, was founded at the college in 1776.

Today, various Greek-letter organizations play an important role in the college community, along with such other social organizations as theatre and club sport groups. Overall, about one-third of undergraduate students are active members of one or another of 16 national fraternities and 13 sororities. William & Mary is also home to several unusual fraternal or similar organizations, including the Nu Kappa Epsilon music sorority and its male counterpart, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia; the Alpha Phi Omega co-ed service fraternity; gender-inclusive Phi Sigma Pi and other honor fraternities.

Secret societies
A number of student secret societies exist at the college, including the F.H.C Society or Flat Hat Club, the Seven Society, the 13 Club, the Bishop James Madison Society, and the Wren Society.

The Queen's Guard
The Queen's Guard was established on February 8, 1961, as a special unit of the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps and is now affiliated with the Pershing Rifles. The Guard was described by former President Davis Y. Paschall as "a unit organized, outfitted with special uniforms, and trained in appropriate drills and ceremonies as will represent the College of William & Mary in Virginia on such occasions and in such events as may be approved by the President." The uniform of the Guard loosely resemble that of the Scots Guards of the United Kingdom. The baldric is a pleated Stuart tartan, in honor of Queen Mary II and Queen Anne. Following a hazing citation in fall 2019 by the college's Community Values & Restorative Practices organization, the Queen's Guard was suspended until at least spring 2022.

Music
William & Mary has eleven collegiate a cappella groups: The Christopher Wren Singers (1987, co-ed); The Gentlemen of the College (1990, all-male); The Stairwells (1990, all-male); Intonations (1990, all-female); Reveille (1992, all-female); The Accidentals (1992, all-female); DoubleTake (1993, co-ed); The Cleftomaniacs (1999, co-ed); Passing Notes (2002, all-female); The Tribetones (2015, all-female); and the Crim Dell Criers (2019, co-ed). Sinfonicron Light Opera Company, founded in 1965, is William & Mary's student run light opera company, producing musicals (traditionally those by Gilbert & Sullivan) in the early spring of each academic year. Music societies at the college include local chapters of the music honor societies Delta Omicron (co-ed) and Phi Mu Alpha (all-male) as well as Nu Kappa Epsilon (all-female). Nu Kappa Epsilon, founded in 1994 at William & Mary, is "dedicated to promoting the growth and development of musical activities at the college as well as in the Williamsburg community".

Large musical ensembles include a symphony orchestra, wind symphony, and four choral ensembles: The William & Mary Choir, The Botetourt Chamber Singers, The Barksdale Treble Chorus (formerly the William & Mary Women's Chorus), and Ebony Expressions Gospel Choir. The Botetourt Chamber Singers (1974, co-ed) are the student chamber choir. There are several musical ensembles at the college, from Early Music Ensemble to Jazz. Prior to 1996 the college had a marching band, which has since changed into the William & Mary Pep Band.

William & Mary's radio station, WCWM, has been on the air since 1959.

Comedy groups
William & Mary has multiple campus comedy groups. I.T. (short for Improvisational Theatre), was founded in 1986 and is the oldest group on campus. The sketch comedy ensemble 7th Grade Sketch Comedy has been in existence since 1997. In 2012, Sandbox Improv was formed. Dad Jeans Improv, established in 2016, specializes in long-form improvisation and technical elements.

Athletics
Formerly known as the "Indians", William & Mary's athletic teams are now known as the "Tribe". The college fields NCAA Division I teams for men and women in basketball, cross country, golf, gymnastics, soccer, swimming, tennis, and indoor and outdoor track and field. Also, there are women's field hockey, lacrosse and volleyball squads as well as men's baseball and football. In the 2004–05 season, the Tribe garnered five Colonial Athletic Association titles, and it leads the conference with over 80 titles. That same year, several teams competed in the NCAA Championships, with the football team appearing in the Division I-AA national semifinals. The men's cross country team finished 8th and 5th within the Division I NCAA Men's Cross Country Championship in 2006 and 2009, respectively. The William & Mary men's basketball team is one of four original Division I schools that have never been to the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.

In May 2006, the NCAA ruled that the athletic logo, which includes two green and gold feathers, could create an environment offensive to the American Indian community. The college's appeal regarding the use of the institution's athletic logo to the NCAA Executive Committee was rejected. The "Tribe" nickname, by itself, was found to be neither hostile nor abusive, but rather communicates ennobling sentiments of commitment, shared idealism, community and common cause. The college stated it would phase out the use of the two feathers by the fall of 2007, although they can still be seen prominently painted on streets throughout the campus.

In 2018, athletic director Samantha Huge introduced a new brand kit for the department, officially retiring and de-emphasizing the script "Tribe" logo.

The "Tribe 2025" plan, a comprehensive plan for the athletics department to raise national prominence, undergo significant facilities upgrades, and achieve higher levels of student involvement and spirit, was presented in 2019. In 2020, William & Mary announced that due to financial concerns they would be discontinuing 7 varsity sports: men's and women's gymnastics, men's and women's swimming, men's indoor and outdoor track and field and volleyball. This decision prompted a petition entitled "save the Tribe 7" which received significant support. On October 19 the university reinstated women's gymnastics, women's swimming, and volleyball after notice of an impending lawsuit on the grounds of title IX violations. President Rowe later announced that the decision to cancel the four men's programs would be put off until the 2021-2022 academic year.

Alumni
Though a historically small college, the alumni of William & Mary are a variety of highly influential and historically significant people, among which include: four of the first ten presidents of the United States, four United States Supreme Court justices, dozens of U.S. senators, members of government, six Rhodes Scholars, and three Marshall Scholars.

title: College of William & Mary


text:
Talk:Digital audio

Diagram request
Would it be possible to get an image of the digitization process for audio - shows the waveform and how it's reconstructed digitally... I've seen them before but I haven't been able to find a diagram that's under a "free" license.

This [|MP3 Handbook Sample chapter] has diagrams like what I'm envisaging, but it's definately copyrighted! VoltageX 23:47, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

→I'll make one if someone will host it. 137.71.23.54 17:05, 8 February 2007 (UTC)Brett

Brett, I wish I'd seen this earlier - you can upload directly to Wikipedia, no hosting needed! VoltageX 02:46, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

I would like an update on this, I want to see how sound can be represented as text in a file 111.172.56.90 (talk) 15:30, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

 * The Overview section now includes File:4-bit-linear-PCM.svg which I assume is the sort of diagram we were looking for here. ~Kvng (talk) 13:48, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Accuracy of the Digitization Process
Although the math is covered in the Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem article, I think it's worth a mention that in a theoretical discrete-time system (not digital, mind you, just discrete-time), a signal can be perfectly sampled and reconstructed as long as it is band-limited by the Nyquist rate. Now, in real life there are higher harmonics we'd like to capture, and when the amplitude is quantized we get quantization noise, but I still think the Nyquist theorem should be highlighted here. 137.71.23.54 17:05, 8 February 2007 (UTC)Brett

 * I have added a link to Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem in the last paragraph of the Overview section. ~Kvng (talk) 14:07, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Interfaces
In the "Digital Audio Interfaces" list, I'm not sure that it's valid to list buses such as USB, FireWire and MIDI as "interfaces". Yes, these buses can "carry" digital audio, but isn't an interface defined as something more specific than that? Doesn't something need ADCs or DACs to be rightly called an interface? If the only requirement is that they "carry" audio, then you have to include every other bus, such as SCSI, NuBus, PCI, ISA, IDE, SATA, WiFi, Ethernet, and CardBus. Dementia13 (talk) 01:54, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

 * USB and FireWire mentions had been removed. I have expanded the last paragraph of this section to mention some of this. Sure, any digital data transport has the potential to carry digital audio. I have included the ones for which a specific provision for doing so has been engineered. ~Kvng (talk) 14:23, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Excess preamble
Was:

When the sound engineer wishes to listen to the recording on headphones or loudspeakers (or when a consumer wishes to listen to a digital sound file),

Changed to:

For playback,

Wiki Education assignment: Technology and Culture
— Assignment last updated by BlueWaterBottle67 (talk) 16:47, 16 September 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Digital audio


text:
Overclocking

In computing, overclocking is the practice of increasing the clock rate of a computer to exceed that certified by the manufacturer. Commonly, operating voltage is also increased to maintain a component's operational stability at accelerated speeds. Semiconductor devices operated at higher frequencies and voltages increase power consumption and heat. An overclocked device may be unreliable or fail completely if the additional heat load is not removed or power delivery components cannot meet increased power demands. Many device warranties state that overclocking or over-specification voids any warranty, but some manufacturers allow overclocking as long as it is done (relatively) safely.

Overview
The purpose of overclocking is to increase the operating speed of a given component. Normally, on modern systems, the target of overclocking is increasing the performance of a major chip or subsystem, such as the main processor or graphics controller, but other components, such as system memory (RAM) or system buses (generally on the motherboard), are commonly involved. The trade-offs are an increase in power consumption (heat), fan noise (cooling), and shortened lifespan for the targeted components. Most components are designed with a margin of safety to deal with operating conditions outside of a manufacturer's control; examples are ambient temperature and fluctuations in operating voltage. Overclocking techniques in general aim to trade this safety margin by setting the device to run in the higher end of the margin, with the understanding that temperature and voltage must be more strictly monitored and controlled by the user. Examples are that operating temperature would need to be more strictly controlled with increased cooling, as the part will be less tolerant of increased temperatures at the higher speeds. Also base operating voltage may be increased to compensate for unexpected voltage drops and to strengthen signalling and timing signals, as low-voltage excursions are more likely to cause malfunctions at higher operating speeds.

While most modern devices are fairly tolerant of overclocking, all devices have finite limits. Generally for any given voltage most parts will have a maximum "stable" speed where they still operate correctly. Past this speed, the device starts giving incorrect results, which can cause malfunctions and sporadic behavior in any system depending on it. While in a PC context the usual result is a system crash, more subtle errors can go undetected, which over a long enough time can give unpleasant surprises such as data corruption (incorrectly calculated results, or worse writing to storage incorrectly) or the system failing only during certain specific tasks (general usage such as internet browsing and word processing appear fine, but any application wanting advanced graphics crashes the system. There might also be a chance for damage to the hardware itself).

At this point, an increase in operating voltage of a part may allow more headroom for further increases in clock speed, but the increased voltage can also significantly increase heat output, as well as shorten the lifespan further. At some point, there will be a limit imposed by the ability to supply the device with sufficient power, the user's ability to cool the part, and the device's own maximum voltage tolerance before it achieves destructive failure. Overzealous use of voltage or inadequate cooling can rapidly degrade a device's performance to the point of failure, or in extreme cases outright destroy it.

The speed gained by overclocking depends largely upon the applications and workloads being run on the system, and what components are being overclocked by the user; benchmarks for different purposes are published.

Underclocking
Conversely, the primary goal of underclocking is to reduce power consumption and the resultant heat generation of a device, with the trade-offs being lower clock speeds and reductions in performance. Reducing the cooling requirements needed to keep hardware at a given operational temperature has knock-on benefits such as lowering the number and speed of fans to allow quieter operation, and in mobile devices increase the length of battery life per charge. Some manufacturers underclock components of battery-powered equipment to improve battery life, or implement systems that detect when a device is operating under battery power and reduce clock frequency.

Underclocking and undervolting would be attempted on a desktop system to have it operate silently (such as for a home entertainment center) while potentially offering higher performance than currently offered by low-voltage processor offerings. This would use a "standard-voltage" part and attempt to run with lower voltages (while attempting to keep the desktop speeds) to meet an acceptable performance/noise target for the build. This was also attractive as using a "standard voltage" processor in a "low voltage" application avoided paying the traditional price premium for an officially certified low voltage version. However again like overclocking there is no guarantee of success, and the builder's time researching given system/processor combinations and especially the time and tedium of performing many iterations of stability testing need to be considered. The usefulness of underclocking (again like overclocking) is determined by what processor offerings, prices, and availability are at the specific time of the build. Underclocking is also sometimes used when troubleshooting.

Enthusiast culture
Overclocking has become more accessible with motherboard makers offering overclocking as a marketing feature on their mainstream product lines. However, the practice is embraced more by enthusiasts than professional users, as overclocking carries a risk of reduced reliability, accuracy and damage to data and equipment. Additionally, most manufacturer warranties and service agreements do not cover overclocked components nor any incidental damages caused by their use. While overclocking can still be an option for increasing personal computing capacity, and thus workflow productivity for professional users, the importance of stability testing components thoroughly before employing them into a production environment cannot be overstated.

Overclocking offers several draws for overclocking enthusiasts. Overclocking allows testing of components at speeds not currently offered by the manufacturer, or at speeds only officially offered on specialized, higher-priced versions of the product. A general trend in the computing industry is that new technologies tend to debut in the high-end market first, then later trickle down to the performance and mainstream market. If the high-end part only differs by an increased clock speed, an enthusiast can attempt to overclock a mainstream part to simulate the high-end offering. This can give insight on how over-the-horizon technologies will perform before they are officially available on the mainstream market, which can be especially helpful for other users considering if they should plan ahead to purchase or upgrade to the new feature when it is officially released.

Some hobbyists enjoy building, tuning, and "Hot-Rodding" their systems in competitive benchmarking competitions, competing with other like-minded users for high scores in standardized computer benchmark suites. Others will purchase a low-cost model of a component in a given product line, and attempt to overclock that part to match a more expensive model's stock performance. Another approach is overclocking older components to attempt to keep pace with increasing system requirements and extend the useful service life of the older part or at least delay purchase of new hardware solely for performance reasons. Another rationale for overclocking older equipment is even if overclocking stresses equipment to the point of failure earlier, little is lost as it is already depreciated, and would have needed to be replaced in any case.

Components
Technically any component that uses a timer (or clock) to synchronize its internal operations can be overclocked. Most efforts for computer components however focus on specific components, such as, processors (a.k.a. CPU), video cards, motherboard chipsets, and RAM. Most modern processors derive their effective operating speeds by multiplying a base clock (processor bus speed) by an internal multiplier within the processor (the CPU multiplier) to attain their final speed.

Computer processors generally are overclocked by manipulating the CPU multiplier if that option is available, but the processor and other components can also be overclocked by increasing the base speed of the bus clock. Some systems allow additional tuning of other clocks (such as a system clock) that influence the bus clock speed that, again is multiplied by the processor to allow for finer adjustments of the final processor speed.

Most OEM systems do not expose to the user the adjustments needed to change processor clock speed or voltage in the BIOS of the OEM's motherboard, which precludes overclocking (for warranty and support reasons). The same processor installed on a different motherboard offering adjustments will allow the user to change them.

Any given component will ultimately stop operating reliably past a certain clock speed. Components will generally show some sort of malfunctioning behavior or other indication of compromised stability that alerts the user that a given speed is not stable, but there is always a possibility that a component will permanently fail without warning, even if voltages are kept within some pre-determined safe values. The maximum speed is determined by overclocking to the point of first instability, then accepting the last stable slower setting. Components are only guaranteed to operate correctly up to their rated values; beyond that different samples may have different overclocking potential. The end-point of a given overclock is determined by parameters such as available CPU multipliers, bus dividers, voltages; the user's ability to manage thermal loads, cooling techniques; and several other factors of the individual devices themselves such as semiconductor clock and thermal tolerances, interaction with other components and the rest of the system.

Considerations
There are several things to be considered when overclocking. First is to ensure that the component is supplied with adequate power at a voltage sufficient to operate at the new clock rate. Supplying the power with improper settings or applying excessive voltage can permanently damage a component.

In a professional production environment, overclocking is only likely to be used where the increase in speed justifies the cost of the expert support required, the possibly reduced reliability, the consequent effect on maintenance contracts and warranties, and the higher power consumption. If faster speed is required it is often cheaper when all costs are considered to buy faster hardware.

Cooling

All electronic circuits produce heat generated by the movement of electric current. As clock frequencies in digital circuits and voltage applied increase, the heat generated by components running at the higher performance levels also increases. The relationship between clock frequencies and thermal design power (TDP) are linear. However, there is a limit to the maximum frequency which is called a "wall". To overcome this issue, overclockers raise the chip voltage to increase the overclocking potential. Voltage increases power consumption and consequently heat generation significantly (proportionally to the square of the voltage in a linear circuit, for example); this requires more cooling to avoid damaging the hardware by overheating. In addition, some digital circuits slow down at high temperatures due to changes in MOSFET device characteristics. Conversely, the overclocker may decide to decrease the chip voltage while overclocking (a process known as undervolting), to reduce heat emissions while performance remains optimal.

Stock cooling systems are designed for the amount of power produced during non-overclocked use; overclocked circuits can require more cooling, such as by powerful fans, larger heat sinks, heat pipes and water cooling. Mass, shape, and material all influence the ability of a heatsink to dissipate heat. Efficient heatsinks are often made entirely of copper, which has high thermal conductivity, but is expensive. Aluminium is more widely used; it has good thermal characteristics, though not as good as copper, and is significantly cheaper. Cheaper materials such as steel do not have good thermal characteristics. Heat pipes can be used to improve conductivity. Many heatsinks combine two or more materials to achieve a balance between performance and cost.

Water cooling carries waste heat to a radiator. Thermoelectric cooling devices which actually refrigerate using the Peltier effect can help with high thermal design power (TDP) processors made by Intel and AMD in the early twenty-first century. Thermoelectric cooling devices create temperature differences between two plates by running an electric current through the plates. This method of cooling is highly effective, but itself generates significant heat elsewhere which must be carried away, often by a convection-based heatsink or a water cooling system.

Other cooling methods are forced convection and phase transition cooling which is used in refrigerators and can be adapted for computer use. Liquid nitrogen, liquid helium, and dry ice are used as coolants in extreme cases, such as record-setting attempts or one-off experiments rather than cooling an everyday system. In June 2006, IBM and Georgia Institute of Technology jointly announced a new record in silicon-based chip clock rate (the rate a transistor can be switched at, not the CPU clock rate ) above 500 GHz, which was done by cooling the chip to 4.5 K using liquid helium. Set in November 2012, the CPU Frequency World Record is 9008.82 MHz as of December 2022. These extreme methods are generally impractical in the long term, as they require refilling reservoirs of vaporizing coolant, and condensation can form on chilled components. Moreover, silicon-based junction gate field-effect transistors (JFET) will degrade below temperatures of roughly 100 K and eventually cease to function or "freeze out" at 40 K since the silicon ceases to be semiconducting, so using extremely cold coolants may cause devices to fail. Blowtorch is used to temporarily raise temperature to issues of over-cooling when not desirable.

Submersion cooling, used by the Cray-2 supercomputer, involves sinking a part of computer system directly into a chilled liquid that is thermally conductive but has low electrical conductivity. The advantage of this technique is that no condensation can form on components. A good submersion liquid is Fluorinert made by 3M, which is expensive. Another option is mineral oil, but impurities such as those in water might cause it to conduct electricity.

Amateur overclocking enthusiasts have used a mixture of dry ice and a solvent with a low freezing point, such as acetone or isopropyl alcohol. This cooling bath, often used in laboratories, achieves a temperature of −78 C. However, this practice is discouraged due to its safety risks; the solvents are flammable and volatile, and dry ice can cause frostbite (through contact with exposed skin) and suffocation (due to the large volume of carbon dioxide generated when it sublimes).

Stability and functional correctness
As an overclocked component operates outside of the manufacturer's recommended operating conditions, it may function incorrectly, leading to system instability. Another risk is silent data corruption by undetected errors. Such failures might never be correctly diagnosed and may instead be incorrectly attributed to software bugs in applications, device drivers, or the operating system. Overclocked use may permanently damage components enough to cause them to misbehave (even under normal operating conditions) without becoming totally unusable.

A large-scale 2011 field study of hardware faults causing a system crash for consumer PCs and laptops showed a four to 20 times increase (depending on CPU manufacturer) in system crashes due to CPU failure for overclocked computers over an eight-month period.

In general, overclockers claim that testing can ensure that an overclocked system is stable and functioning correctly. Although software tools are available for testing hardware stability, it is generally impossible for any private individual to thoroughly test the functionality of a processor. Achieving good fault coverage requires immense engineering effort; even with all of the resources dedicated to validation by manufacturers, faulty components and even design faults are not always detected.

A particular "stress test" can verify only the functionality of the specific instruction sequence used in combination with the data and may not detect faults in those operations. For example, an arithmetic operation may produce the correct result but incorrect flags; if the flags are not checked, the error will go undetected.

To further complicate matters, in process technologies such as silicon on insulator (SOI), devices display hysteresis—a circuit's performance is affected by the events of the past, so without carefully targeted tests it is possible for a particular sequence of state changes to work at overclocked rates in one situation but not another even if the voltage and temperature are the same. Often, an overclocked system which passes stress tests experiences instabilities in other programs.

In overclocking circles, "stress tests" or "torture tests" are used to check for correct operation of a component. These workloads are selected as they put a very high load on the component of interest (e.g. a graphically intensive application for testing video cards, or different math-intensive applications for testing general CPUs). Popular stress tests include Prime95, Superpi, OCCT, AIDA64, Linpack (via the LinX and IntelBurnTest GUIs), SiSoftware Sandra, BOINC, Intel Thermal Analysis Tool and Memtest86. The hope is that any functional-correctness issues with the overclocked component will manifest themselves during these tests, and if no errors are detected during the test, then the component is deemed "stable". Since fault coverage is important in stability testing, the tests are often run for long periods of time, hours or even days. An overclocked computer is sometimes described using the number of hours and the stability program used, such as "prime 12 hours stable".

Factors allowing overclocking
Overclockability arises in part due to the economics of the manufacturing processes of CPUs and other components. In many cases components are manufactured by the same process, and tested after manufacture to determine their actual maximum ratings. Components are then marked with a rating chosen by the market needs of the semiconductor manufacturer. If manufacturing yield is high, more higher-rated components than required may be produced, and the manufacturer may mark and sell higher-performing components as lower-rated for marketing reasons. In some cases, the true maximum rating of the component may exceed even the highest rated component sold. Many devices sold with a lower rating may behave in all ways as higher-rated ones, while in the worst case operation at the higher rating may be more problematical.

Notably, higher clocks must always mean greater waste heat generation, as semiconductors set to high must dump to ground more often. In some cases, this means that the chief drawback of the overclocked part is far more heat dissipated than the maximums published by the manufacturer. Pentium architect Bob Colwell calls overclocking an "uncontrolled experiment in better-than-worst-case system operation".

Measuring effects of overclocking
Benchmarks are used to evaluate performance, and they can become a kind of "sport" in which users compete for the highest scores. As discussed above, stability and functional correctness may be compromised when overclocking, and meaningful benchmark results depend on the correct execution of the benchmark. Because of this, benchmark scores may be qualified with stability and correctness notes (e.g. an overclocker may report a score, noting that the benchmark only runs to completion 1 in 5 times, or that signs of incorrect execution such as display corruption are visible while running the benchmark). A widely used test of stability is Prime95, which has built-in error checking that fails if the computer is unstable.

Using only the benchmark scores, it may be difficult to judge the difference overclocking makes to the overall performance of a computer. For example, some benchmarks test only one aspect of the system, such as memory bandwidth, without taking into consideration how higher clock rates in this aspect will improve the system performance as a whole. Apart from demanding applications such as video encoding, high-demand databases and scientific computing, memory bandwidth is typically not a bottleneck, so a great increase in memory bandwidth may be unnoticeable to a user depending on the applications used. Other benchmarks, such as 3DMark, attempt to replicate game conditions.

Manufacturer and vendor overclocking
Overclocking is sometimes offered as a legitimate service or feature for consumers, in which a manufacturer or retailer tests the overclocking capability of processors, memory, video cards, and other hardware products. Several video card manufactures now offer factory-overclocked versions of their graphics accelerators, complete with a warranty, usually at a price intermediate between that of the standard product and a non-overclocked product of higher performance.

It is speculated that manufacturers implement overclocking prevention mechanisms such as CPU multiplier locking to prevent users from buying lower-priced items and overclocking them. These measures are sometimes marketed as a consumer protection benefit, but are often criticized by buyers.

Many motherboards are sold, and advertised, with extensive facilities for overclocking implemented in hardware and controlled by BIOS settings.

CPU multiplier locking
CPU multiplier locking is the process of permanently setting a CPU's clock multiplier. AMD CPUs are unlocked in early editions of a model and locked in later editions, but nearly all Intel CPUs are locked and recent models are very resistant to unlocking to prevent overclocking by users. AMD ships unlocked CPUs with their Opteron, FX, All Ryzen desktop chips (except 3D variants) and Black Series line-up, while Intel uses the monikers of "Extreme Edition" and "K-Series." Intel usually has one or two Extreme Edition CPUs on the market as well as X series and K series CPUs analogous to AMD's Black Edition. AMD has the majority of their desktop range in a Black Edition.

Users usually unlock CPUs to allow overclocking, but sometimes to allow for underclocking in order to maintain the front side bus speed (on older CPUs) compatibility with certain motherboards. Unlocking generally invalidates the manufacturer's warranty, and mistakes can cripple or destroy a CPU. Locking a chip's clock multiplier does not necessarily prevent users from overclocking, as the speed of the front-side bus or PCI multiplier (on newer CPUs) may still be changed to provide a performance increase. AMD Athlon and Athlon XP CPUs are generally unlocked by connecting bridges (jumper-like points) on the top of the CPU with conductive paint or pencil lead. Other CPU models may require different procedures.

Increasing front-side bus or northbridge/PCI clocks can overclock locked CPUs, but this throws many system frequencies out of sync, since the RAM and PCI frequencies are modified as well.

All other unlocked processors from LGA1151 and v2 (including 7th, 8th, and 9th generation) and BGA1440 allow for BCLK overclocking (as long as the OEM allows it), while all other locked processors from 7th, 8th, and 9th gen were not able to go past 102.7 MHz. 10th gen however, could reach 103 MHz on the BCLK.

Advantages

 * Higher performance in games, en-/decoding, video editing and system tasks at no additional direct monetary expense, but with increased electrical consumption and thermal output.
 * System optimization: Some systems have "bottlenecks", where small overclocking of one component can help realize the full potential of another component to a greater percentage than when just the limiting hardware itself is overclocked. For instance: many motherboards with AMD Athlon 64 processors limit the clock rate of four units of RAM to 333 MHz. However, the memory performance is computed by dividing the processor clock rate (which is a base number times a CPU multiplier, for instance 1.8 GHz is most likely 9×200 MHz) by a fixed integer such that, at a stock clock rate, the RAM would run at a clock rate near 333 MHz. Manipulating elements of how the processor clock rate is set (usually adjusting the multiplier), it is often possible to overclock the processor a small amount, around 5–10%, and gain a small increase in RAM clock rate and/or reduction in RAM latency timings.
 * It can be cheaper to purchase a lower performance component and overclock it to the clock rate of a more expensive component.
 * Extending the practical service life of old or obsolete equipment.

General

 * Higher clock rates and voltages increase power consumption, also increasing electricity cost and heat production. The additional heat increases the ambient air temperature within the system case, which may affect other components. The hot air blown out of the case heats the room it's in.
 * Fan noise: High-performance fans running at maximum speed used for the required degree of cooling of an overclocked machine can be noisy, some producing 50 dB or more of noise. When maximum cooling is not required, in any equipment, fan speeds can be reduced below the maximum: fan noise has been found to be roughly proportional to the fifth power of fan speed; halving speed reduces noise by about 15 dB. Fan noise can be reduced by design improvements, e.g. with aerodynamically optimized blades for smoother airflow, reducing noise to around 20 dB at approximately 1 metre or larger fans rotating more slowly, which produce less noise than smaller, faster fans with the same airflow. Acoustical insulation inside the case e.g. acoustic foam can reduce noise. Additional cooling methods which do not use fans can be used, such as liquid and phase-change cooling.
 * An overclocked computer may become unreliable. For example: Microsoft Windows may appear to work with no problems, but when it is re-installed or upgraded, error messages may be received such as a "file copy error" during Windows Setup. Because installing an operating system is very memory-intensive, decoding errors may occur when files are extracted.
 * The lifespan of semiconductor components may be reduced by increased voltages and heat.
 * Warranties may be voided by overclocking.

Risks of overclocking

 * Increasing the operation frequency of a component will usually increase its thermal output in a linear fashion, while an increase in voltage usually causes thermal power to increase quadratically. Excessive voltages or improper cooling may cause chip temperatures to rise to dangerous levels, causing the chip to be damaged or destroyed.
 * Exotic cooling methods used to facilitate overclocking such as water cooling are more likely to cause damage if they malfunction. Sub-ambient cooling methods such as phase-change cooling or liquid nitrogen will cause water condensation, which will cause electrical damage unless controlled; some methods include using kneaded erasers or shop towels to catch the condensation.

Limitations
Overclocking components can only be of noticeable benefit if the component is on the critical path for a process, if it is a bottleneck. If disk access or the speed of an Internet connection limit the speed of a process, a 20% increase in processor speed is unlikely to be noticed, however there are some scenarios where increasing the clock speed of a processor actually allows an SSD to be read and written to faster. Overclocking a CPU will not noticeably benefit a game when a graphics card's performance is the "bottleneck" of the game.

Adaptive Management in Overclocking
Similar to dynamic adjustments critical in network management for handling data flow and preventing bottlenecks, overclocking computer hardware requires ongoing monitoring and adaptations to maintain system stability and performance. In high-performance network systems, researchers like Åkerblom et al. (2023) have developed adaptive methods such as Thompson Sampling to optimize system responses under varying conditions, analogous to technologies used in overclocking like real-time voltage adjustments and adaptive cooling systems. These technologies are crucial in managing the additional heat and power demands imposed by overclocked components, ensuring that the hardware operates within safe temperature and voltage limits to prevent damage and prolong the lifespan of the components[1].

Graphics cards
Graphics cards can also be overclocked. There are utilities to achieve this, such as EVGA's Precision, RivaTuner, AMD Overdrive (on AMD cards only), MSI Afterburner, Zotac Firestorm, and the PEG Link Mode on Asus motherboards. Overclocking a GPU will often yield a marked increase in performance in synthetic benchmarks, usually reflected in game performance. It is sometimes possible to see that a graphics card is being pushed beyond its limits before any permanent damage is done by observing on-screen artifacts or unexpected system crashes. It is common to run into one of those problems when overclocking graphics cards; both symptoms at the same time usually means that the card is severely pushed beyond its heat, clock rate, and/or voltage limits, however if seen when not overclocked, they indicate a faulty card. After a reboot, video settings are reset to standard values stored in the graphics card firmware, and the maximum clock rate of that specific card is now deducted.

Some overclockers apply a potentiometer to the graphics card to manually adjust the voltage (which usually invalidates the warranty). This allows for finer adjustments, as overclocking software for graphics cards can only go so far. Excessive voltage increases may damage or destroy components on the graphics card or the entire graphics card itself (practically speaking).

Alternatives
Flashing and unlocking can be used to improve the performance of a video card, without technically overclocking (but is much riskier than overclocking just through software).

Flashing refers to using the firmware of a different card with the same (or sometimes similar) core and compatible firmware, effectively making it a higher model card; it can be difficult, and may be irreversible. Sometimes standalone software to modify the firmware files can be found, e.g. NiBiTor (GeForce 6/7 series are well regarded in this aspect), without using firmware for a better model video card. For example, video cards with 3D accelerators (most, ) have two voltage and clock rate settings, one for 2D and one for 3D, but were designed to operate with three voltage stages, the third being somewhere between the aforementioned two, serving as a fallback when the card overheats or as a middle-stage when going from 2D to 3D operation mode. Therefore, it could be wise to set this middle-stage prior to "serious" overclocking, specifically because of this fallback ability; the card can drop down to this clock rate, reducing by a few (or sometimes a few dozen, depending on the setting) percent of its efficiency and cool down, without dropping out of 3D mode (and afterwards return to the desired high performance clock and voltage settings).

Some cards have abilities not directly connected with overclocking. For example, Nvidia's GeForce 6600GT (AGP flavor) has a temperature monitor used internally by the card, invisible to the user if standard firmware is used. Modifying the firmware can display a 'Temperature' tab.

Unlocking refers to enabling extra pipelines or pixel shaders. The 6800LE, the 6800GS and 6800 (AGP models only) were some of the first cards to benefit from unlocking. While these models have either 8 or 12 pipes enabled, they share the same 16x6 GPU core as a 6800GT or Ultra, but pipelines and shaders beyond those specified are disabled; the GPU may be fully functional, or may have been found to have faults which do not affect operation at the lower specification. GPUs found to be fully functional can be unlocked successfully, although it is not possible to be sure that there are undiscovered faults; in the worst case the card may become permanently unusable.

Overclocking and benchmark databases

 * OC Database of all PC hardware for the past decade (applications, modifications and more)
 * HWBOT: Worldwide Overclocking League – Overclocking competition and data
 * Comprehensive CPU OC Database
 * Segunda Convencion Nacional de OC: Overclocking Extremo by Imperio Gamer
 * Tool for overclock

title: Overclocking