Comment 30 for bug 1600599

> I don't know how to see the actual temperature,

Recommend you use turbostat to observe package and core temperatures.
turbostat is included in the linux-tools-common package (I think).

> but I know that it goes
> high (i) by touching the bottom of the laptop and burning myself, and
>(ii) because it gets to a point (remember: thermald is off) where
> everything becomes incredibly slow.

Yes, that is the last level of protection before shutdown.
clock modulation is turned on at 50%. The intel pstate cpu frequency driver is fundamentally incompatible with clock modulation and so your CPU frequencies will be become locked at a very low frequency. You should be able to observe this with turbostat also.