Methods and apparatuses for dynamically budgeting power usage to control temperatures in a data processing system. In one aspect, a data processing system includes: a first sensor to determine an ambient temperature of an environment in which the data processing system is; and a controller (e.g., a microcontroller or a microprocessor) coupled to the sensor to control operations of the data processing system according to the ambient temperature. In one example, the data processing system further includes a second sensor to determine an actual temperature of a component of the data processing system. In one example, a controller is coupled to the temperature sensors to determine an operating setting of the data processing system based on a prediction of a temperature of the data processing system which is a function of the plurality of actual temperatures and the operating setting of the data processing system.