There is something clearly not working correctly in saving system. I recently had occasion to play on 2 different computers, and the results were surprising.
PC 1: AMD Phenom II X6, 4GB DDR3 Ram, HD Radeon 5850, normal HDD (don't remember model or speed). Windows 7 64 bit, old install (around 4 years old).
PC 2: Intel i5 3570k, 16GB DDR3 Ram, GeForce 660Ti, SSD, fresh Windows 7 64 bit install.
Even though PC 1 is much older, and overall game performance wasn't very good (constant hiccups, not very responsive on higher speeds), the saving to cloud was very fast (aroud 0.3s at beginning of the game), saving locally took around much longer (around 3 seconds).
On PC 2, overall game performance is excellent (perfectly fluid, no hiccups on speed 5), however each save takes around 3 to 4 seconds, doesn't matter if it is to cloud or locally.
Something is wrong on Paradox' end. PC 2 should be getting better save times in all circumstances, but it's clearly not the case. I really hope it gets fixed eventually. EU4 ironman works really well, saves are fast and less frequent I believe.