XPS12 output to external monitor

I just got my XPS12 a couple of weeks ago and when I connect to an external 22" Dell monitor the image on both the XPS and monitor are terrible.  I have tried connecting with a mini-displayport to displayport cable as well as a VGA cable to HDMI adapter through the Superspeed dock - both times it's no good.  

I upgraded to 8.1 so is it the driver or is the graphics card not able to handle the output?