I hope it helps, dont be lazy and try this,

i tried every tweak and fix possible in everyway, this is the only way i got the game to work smoothly, with unnoticeable texture pop. (slow streaming)
the game sometimes crashes on loading screens but reload the game and it will load fine, dunno why it is happning.

try those steps.

1) uninstall ATI drivers, download and use "driver sweeper" it will clean the old ATI drivers (restart is a must)

2) Install the oct 4th Rage ATI driver Fix.

3) go to C:\Users\"username"\AppData\Local, and create a folder name it "id software" inside the folder you created create another one and name it "Rage", done.

4) Open the catalyst control center, go to "gaming" tab, scroll all the way down to "wait for vertical refresh" and set it to "off. unless application spcifices", now Uncheck the box for "triple buffering", done

5) go to the game folder Rage inside there is a folder name "Base" open it and create a txt file name it "Rageconfig.cfg" open it and Copy paste this:

seta com_videoRam "1024" //sets the Video Card memory Set this to the amount you have in MB
seta com_maxfps "60" //limits the frames to 60 can be changed to what you desire
seta image_anisotropy "2" //Using the highest setting here but you can set as 2, 4 or 8
seta image_usecompression 0
seta image_filter "GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR" //filtering for light maps
seta image_preload "1" //Use preload images when ever possible
seta image_lodbias "-1" //LoD settings
seta image_ignoreHighQuality "1" //Sets up for using HQ gfx
seta image_ignoreLowQuality "0" //ignores the low textures
seta image_useCache "1" //Enabled Cache to allow the textures to load properly without popping
seta image_cacheMegs "125" //Cache size in Megabytes
seta image_cacheMinK "50" //Cache minimum size in kilobytes
seta r_swapInterval 1 //VSYNC 1 enabled, 0 diabled
seta r_useHighQualityPostProcess "1" //Fore High Quality post proccessing
seta r_shadowsHighQuality "0" //Fore High Quality shadows
seta r_displayRefresh "0" //keep it so the engine doesn't double render a frame
seta r_renderer "best" //highest rendering options
seta r_multiSamples "8" //Set this to 16 or 8 if you're having low-fps as 32 is the Max Multi-sampling
seta r_useHBAO "0" //Ambient occlusion
seta r_useRenderThread "0" // 0 Disable or 1 Enable threaded rendering useful for newer cards to increase performance.
seta r_visDistMult "1"
seta r_useMotionBlur "0" //use blur
seta r_skipBump "0"
seta r_skipSpecular "0"
seta r_skipNewAmbient "0"
seta r_shadows "0"
seta r_cgFragmentProfile "best"
seta r_cgVertexProfile "best"
seta vt_lodBias "-1" //LoD settings
//below is cache settings
seta vt_pageimagesizeuniquediffuseonly2 "8192"
seta vt_pageimagesizeuniquediffuseonly "8192"
seta vt_pageimagesizeunique "8192"
seta vt_pageimagesizevmtr "8192"
seta fc_maxcachememoryMB "1024"

seta vt_maxPPF "8"
seta com_allowConsole "1"
seta com_skipIntroVideo "1"

seta cg_usecompression "0"
seta cg_useprecompressedtextures "0"


and your done start rage, and hope for the best!

my hardware:
core i7 930
ATI 5770HD
6GB DDR3 1666mhz

Oh the things we pc gamers go through.
So I will start this... when will we be getting a nvde character model mod?!?!?!?!

I did this but with less coding (mainly just the textures), would this help with the game suddenly crashing?

dunno about that, crashing happend even before i did anything so this fix doesnt make things crash, just do every step i explained here dont skip anything and there is good chance it will work

This fix made the screen tearing much worse. I see blocks of texture that match nothing around me.

unknown command com_videoram

com_videoRam

You can't set AF to 16x?

Or does the 2 4 8, etc., correspond to something other than 2x, 4x, 8x?

if you see screen texture tearing after applying the fix, try to turn Vsync on via the catalyst the "wait for vertical refresh" set it to "always on" if that doesnt help, then turn it off again, and check the triple buferring and run the game.

note: i know it is annoying thing to do, but it is the only option this aint an offcial patch just some tweaks im trying to help you out.

Megatextures don't like AF beyond 4x, due to the compression they're using I think. I read that, if you force it to be higher, the game uses uncompressed textures, which causes all your VRAM to magically disappear.