Kubuntu 13.04 and 13.10 create garbled screens
 

Using MSI 7597 ver. 1 and 2 on separate computers. With 13.04 every time I installed it I got a repeated pattern on the screen as soon as it started KDE, as if it were out of sync. With 12.10, I sometimes get this, and sometimes all is good until it builds the taskbar, which appears in isolated chunks, totally unusable. I never had this problem up thru 12.10, which I can still install. What has changed about Kubuntu? How can I get around this problem?

That's different. One difference I have noticed is that desktop effects and compositing are active by default, though what you're describing sounds more like a bad resolution/driver.

EDIT: Sorry, the compositing and desktop effects being on by default started with 13.10, I think

SOLVED! I got a new MSI mobo without built-in video. I added an Invidia Gforce card, the least expensive I could fing, and now I am using Kubuntu 13.10 with no video problems.