Does auto_load to ‘no’ in wp_options improve performance

It depends on content and context.

Options with autoload = yes are loaded very early, all in one query. This is pretty fast, but it might be too early when an options contains a serialized object whose class isn’t loaded yet.

Options with autoload = no are loaded when get_option() is called.

Use yes when …

• ( you need the option on (almost) every page load or
• you don’t know when you will need the option or
• the option value is very small )
  and
• the value is not a serialized object

Use no in all other cases, or refactor the code to make it “yes-compatible”.

You have to weight the number of database requests against the size of the transferred content. When in doubt, measure both.