I believe I may just have to revert to 1.52 myself. Listen to this:
With v. 1.52, I had a 64 MB Intel video card and played on medium graphics fine, I never found myself waiting after pressing enter. (Sure, I had late-game slowdown like everyone else, but still)
Now, after getting a new 256 MB card at the same time I updated to 1.61 I get the 'Waiting for other civilizations.." message for about 30 seconds each time I end the turn. Even in the very beginning, on a small map. I am playing on low graphics too.
Something is seriously wrong.