A dynamic adjustment of core power can reduce thermal margin between thermal design power (TDP) and an allowable thermal load. For example, by focusing directly on the core temperatures explicitly, a per-core closed loop temperature controller (pCLTC) can remove conservatism induced by the power level 1 policy (PL1, a policy which defines frequency and/or power for the processor under sustained load) thereby allowing for increased processor performance when there exists margin in the thermal system.