I didn't notice the mention of Win 8. Win 8 is a monstrosity that should be avoided. If the issue is with Win 8, I retract my previous statement and apologize. The OP should have clarified that better. As bad as the Win 8 tablet issue is, I don't see how he's going to make any progress getting them to change it when so…
on a side note this is quite weird, I'm not sure whats causing it but when adding the gradient with noise as a vertex color angled across a 100 by 100 segment plane you get an odd interference pattern when the octives are 8 or higher. And It only happens when angled.