A method and apparatus of a device that manages a thermal profile of a device by selectively throttling graphics processing unit operations of the device is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the device monitors the thermal profile of the device, where the device executes a plurality of processes that utilizes a graphics processing unit of the device. In addition, the plurality of processes include a high priority process and a low priority process. If the thermal profile of the device exceeds a thermal threshold, the device decreases a first GPU utilization for the low priority process and maintains a second GPU utilization for the high priority process. The device further executes the low priority process using the first GPU utilization with the GPU and executes the high priority process using the second GPU utilization with the GPU.