I've noticed that stutters happen much more regularly when I install any citadel update higher than the citadel-1.7.1-1.16.5 version. I've tested this with multiple citadel versions, 1.7.1 is the latest version that does not cause the stutters.

I've been noticing some stuttering / lag as well. Profiling with Spark seemed to indicate Citadel was a potential cause of the problem. Will try and use 1.7.1 and see if it improves performance.