Please don't tell me my save is ruined. 25 hours in, Level 16 and around 115 locations found. Does locations found on world map have anything to do with it? I'm deleting all my autosaves and turning it off.
If you disable autosave, you will reduce the load that the game demands on the system, so yes, it will improve a little. But it's only a temporary fix, as problems will eventually occur again. It's like patching a hole in a tire with Duct Tape.