My best guess is a bug in the Mesa libGL with i915. I have no documentation or proof.
Question: can you boot Ubuntu 13.10 64 bit desktop (LiveUSB) and try the same thing? This kernel is new enough that they would have fixed most of these bugs I think. I have no experience with Mint whatsoever, but I wonder if their downstream work from Ubuntu has made this system a little too "fresh" and buggy for your fairly new hardware.
Question: can you boot Ubuntu 13.10 64 bit desktop (LiveUSB) and try the same thing? This kernel is new enough that they would have fixed most of these bugs I think. I have no experience with Mint whatsoever, but I wonder if their downstream work from Ubuntu has made this system a little too "fresh" and buggy for your fairly new hardware.
