Heh... your example looks like it's part of the background image

It's not, it's part of the world geometry. If I'd shown an example in Unreal 2, you would have been able to see it better.

However... this does sometimes occur with world geometry too. Especially if it's translucent in any way.

I'm reasonably certain the polys in question were not translucent. In fact, there are many translucent polys in Unreal and I think in that nature scene, too (the refractive water) which sort just fine.

It appears to be a glitch that isn't going to be addressed by hardware anytime in the near future.

I think it turned out to be a glitch in software. I posted on the Futuremark forums and they suggested backing off a version of the Nvidia drivers. They were right. 44.03 does not have the bug, 45.23 does.

Of course, the older version of the drivers is a lot slower, resulting in lower frame rates and a much lower 3DMark score. *SIGH*...

EDIT: By the way... did you ever figure out your last problem referenced above? Last time I tried to play Unreal2 I was reminded of your problem, but could not reproduce it...

Nope. All I know is that the new card and the new drivers don't have that problem at all. So as far as I'm concerned... problem solved.