don't forget the freezing when saving problem too:P
for me best solution was rage patch and AMD Catalyst? 11.10 Version 2 Preview driver. - i have textures pop in problem when turning fast - 0-6sec delay from textures appearing to the world - smaller areas or when turning while moving then it aint so bad, 0-2sec still
with "Version 3" i still have texture pop-in problem and for bonus i get the same crash/freez problem. entering wasteland and it wont load any texture. and when saveing it will freeze, but it will save (when waiting some time what i did) and after the restart to the whole game, i could continiue... about 50 minutes when the problem returns. so i made downgrade to the ati/amd driver to v2.
no config file or anything has helped. need new patch, pop-in thing has been constant problem for me. im trying to play the game second time but it makes me feel

cpu:phenom II x3
gpu:HD4850