I've noticed this happening as well - I find that it happens when I gain certain techs or change goverment types rather than being a specific fault i.e video or something,or sometimes after I've loaded a save game.
(I'm running v1.21f patch)
Don't know if it helps but I've found clicking off the option on the foreign advisor screen to show all the relationships (peace/war , mpps etc) wait a turn then click them back on and they reappear and stay on. Soemtimes doing the shift + right click option (which normally shows the other civs if too many are available to display at once will bring them back as well.
If everything else is displaying correctly I don't think you have a video card problem.