Jake,
No; autosave appears to operate entirely invisibly with no stutters - on my system at least, and I suspect it's not superior to yours. (2gHz PIV/1gB RAM/Radeon 9200SE).
Has this been happening long, or has it only started recently? Does it happen say once a day, or does it keep happening? If so, what add-ons have you put on recently? Might be worth tracing backwards and removing items until you find the one that's probably causing the problem.
Just a thought - are you using the Engine Exhaust System (by yours truly) for simulated engine heat haze? There was a glitch with that which caused the sim to crash, which I fixed. If you are, let me know.
