Try to stretch for a 270x if possible. Personally wouldn't go any lower since you lose a lot of power from that point downwards. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU14/857
Took me a while to figure this out but using different parts of the screen helps immensely. For instance the front of the screen is often ok for infantry, but you can't see the whole range of a pak until you get halfway up the screen. At the top of the screen pak range is only 2/3 of the screen width so you can comfortably fit the entire firing arc.
Not sure if this will help OP, but I see a lot of people complaining they can't even see what their tanks are shooting at, which is a screen usage issue rather than zoom.
I get it sporadically, not every game. Actually lost a squad to a satchel after instantly retreating, so agree that 3+ seconds isn't an exaggeration. It does seem to happen more often recently, but it's hard to judge. Every time it happens is always too often.
The 30 second lag spikes are a bigger problem though.
Sometimes when the Su-85 finishes its 180, it realises it didn't need to do that, but because you gave it a reverse order it keeps going for the full 360 before backing off.