Game 'Hiccups' Getting Unbearable....

I have no idea what changed, but something major changed with the last patch.  This was pretty well non-existant before.

Here's my issue.
Basically, the game is 'lagging' every three to five minutes.  It's basically like a hiccup.  It's so irrating now.  It's causing other issues like Sims resetting, slowed interaction window, and the chat window (upper center of screen) to show Sims that have left/were a previous conversation.

I'm running straight vanilla with the exception of upgraded gyms.  I've tried lower graphic settings, but still no change.

If I had to speculate, I'd say the issue is somewhere in the Auto Save feature.  There are no settings to disable it to test it and the game 'auto saving' every couple of minutes sounds logical.