Display problem - hidden lines showing through front faces

When I view large parts with very large curvature (1100 inches ID) I
can see hidden lines if they lie close to the surface.

I have an 1100 inch ID cylinder that is very thin (3/16). There are
ribs on the outside. When I view the inside I can see the base of the
ribs unless I zoom in very close.

Image quality settings are set to the highest resolution possible and
optimize edge length can be checked or unchecked.

Also, picking edges on this large diameter is somewhat of a problem
because edges and faces don't match up very well and seem to "dive" in
and out of each other even when zoomed in.

AMD64 FX53
NVidia FX3000

SW2004
SW2005

 

I've been mentioning this to the VAR and SW since 99.....
The best excuse I've heard is that they have some algorithm for reducing the
accuracy of displayed stuff when it's zoomed out.

 

All we do is large stuff like this so it is an everyday annoyance. I
have a top of the line graphics card and CPU and even with that can't
get a display that I can show a customer. Guess we have to chalk it up
to humans being smarter than computers in that we can see when
something like this is happening, but the computer can't.