[CentOS] bad text under KDE and C7

> >   
> >         Kernel driver in use: i915
> >         Kernel modules: i915
> 
The i915 driver is fairly rock solid - virtually all desktop machines
these days have on-board Intel video, it's the lowest common
denominator. And your chipset is not exactly cutting edge stuff.

Are there any errors in the logs - either kernel logs or X logs?

For some reason you say you disliked Gnome - but does Gnome show issues
(they use the same video driver)?

A long shot is the theme. Are you using some non-standard theme on your
desktop?

Finally, do you have a spare graphics card you could try in the
machine? (This is just to make sure there's no hardware problem.)

P.