MX Linux Forum

I thought thermald only slows down the CPU when your CPU temp gets up into the danger zone, so it won't slow the machine in normal use. There may be a config file to let you adjust the trigger temperatures, though that's just a SWAG.
(Scientific Wild-A**ed Guess)

Hmmm--since I don't have cooling issues, I'll have to learn how to use pigz so I can use all cores to make zip files instead of just one--I'll save several seconds a day at least!

That is my experience.
So far, Thermald and intel_pstate only take effect under heavy load such as snapshotting. I can't prove it but normal use, subjectively, is not affected.
Granted it takes 55 minutes to create a snapshot instead of 15 minutes, but does so keeping temperatures around 87°C instead of 102°C.
I'll plan to do snapshots off-peak hours.

Supposedly the indicator-CPU, I think, that you suggested gives Powersave & Performance modes. I left it in Powersave. (Not near laptop).