Comment 2 for bug 1944389

I've checked with the latest git version -- it has the same problem.

New behavior (git thermald, as well as latest Ubuntu version with backports): thermald keeps the GPU frequency at 400 Hz after reaching 85 degrees, even if temperature decreases to 74.
After the thermal regime stabilizes there are following measurements:
GPU freq 400MHz
CPU freq 2.4GHz
Package temperature: 74 degrees
FPS is 25-35 -- it's impossible to play the game
intel_gpu_top displays that "Render/3D/0" engine is busy up to 100%, usually 97-99

Old behavior:
thermald starts throttling after reaching 70 degrees but allows GPU to run on 660 MHz
After the thermal regime stabilizes there are following measurements:
GPU freq 660MHz
CPU freq 1.3GHz
Package temperature: 64 degrees
FPS is 45-53 -- game is playable
intel_gpu_top displays that "Render/3D/0" engine is almost always busy at 100%

So new thermald ignores GPU demand and sacrifices the GPU performance in favor of CPU and at the same time keeps the higher temperature.

I also have found a workaround -- to disable the new behavior one needs to remove the "--adaptive" switch. W/o it the new version works as the old one with that switch.