I looked into this matter further and found this Reddit on the subject of modern kernel Power Management:
Linux kernel 5.8 defaults to passive mode for intel_pstate driver for cpu before Skylake
so I removed intel_pstate=active as a kernel parameter in grub (remember to sudo update-grub, and Restart) and instead opened TLPUI and changed the CPU Scaling Governor from “powersave” to “schedutil”, again Restart.
More observation is needed but I think this fixed my issue!
inxi -MCza:
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Latitude E5430 non-vPro v: 01 serial: Chassis: type: 9 serial:
Mobo: Dell model: N/A serial: UEFI: Dell v: A21 date: 11/30/2018
CPU:
Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-3230M bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Ivy Bridge family: 6 model-id: 3A (58)
stepping: 9 microcode: 21 L2 cache: 3072 KiB
flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 20740
Speed: 2392 MHz min/max: 1200/3200 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1756 2: 1254 3: 1378 4: 1556
Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling
Type: srbds status: Vulnerable: No microcode
Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
sudo cpupower frequency-info:
analyzing CPU 0:
driver: intel_cpufreq
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
maximum transition latency: 20.0 us
hardware limits: 1.20 GHz - 3.20 GHz
available cpufreq governors: performance schedutil
current policy: frequency should be within 1.20 GHz and 3.20 GHz.
The governor “schedutil” may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency: Unable to call hardware
current CPU frequency: 1.33 GHz (asserted by call to kernel)
boost state support:
Supported: yes
Active: yes
3000 MHz max turbo 4 active cores
3000 MHz max turbo 3 active cores
3000 MHz max turbo 2 active cores
3200 MHz max turbo 1 active cores
I also have thermald installed.
I welcome the feedback of more experienced Linux users of the Manjaro community to confirm that this is the correct logic for kernel 5.8, the upcoming 5.9 and next.