Try 32 bit color. 1600 by 1200 at 60 Hz is the native (recommended) resolution. Sharpness is provided for s-video input in the monitor menu, not for normal DVI or VGA.

http://docs.us.dell.com/docs/monitors/2001fp/en/controls.htm#menu_system

DVD movies, and TV will show their limitations, they are NOT high definition. That monitor is awesome, I may get one...

thing is, at this resolution 1600x1200, it doesnt run at 32, only at 16...

One thing that it might be...is that i have the high speed usb cable thats attached to the monitor, going into my usb1 port in my comp..i ordered a new comp recently with usb2.0 ports...maybe that will make a difference

   No, unfortunately for you that is a function of video memory. You do not have enough memory on your video card to make the 2001FP display at its native resolution and color depth. Time to update your video card with at least 64 MB of memory.

I have the same monitor - if you are running through DVI, you might want to upgrade your video card.  Personally, I had an FX5200 and I did not like the way the DVI output from this card looked on this monitor.  I played around with a few different cards over a period of time and settled on ATI - I believe that the ATI cards look better TO ME and that's why I now use one.  There is an interesting article about how different video cards were tested in relation to their DVI compliance, and it was found that many cards are not outputting the signal completely within spec.  What this means is that the image you see on the screen will not look very good, which is probably what you are noticing now.  Unfortunately, cards based on NVIDIA chips (old and new) were bad offenders, and generally ATI cards were mostly within the spec.  I can post a link if anyone is interested.

Also, the DVI connection does not allow you to change certain settings like contrast and sharpness, because in theory, the signal should be "perfect".  If it's not, then it's not the monitor, it's the card, trust me on this.

i too have the exact same problem.  i am unable to run 1600x1200 @32 bit color depth with my GeForce3 ti500 and my (day old!) dell 2001fp. 

i do not think this has anything to do w/ memory, as my 2 year old dell latitude laptop, with an aging mobile gpu, was able to pull off this resolution and depth over the monitor's vga port.

in addition, this setting (1600x1200@32) is actually listed in one of the .inf driver files, and i also confirmed this res and depth as possible in an nvidia white paper on the GeForce3 line.  what is even more infuriating, however, is that every resolution works @32bit EXCEPT THE NATIVE ONE. 

the only options, it seems, --- in order of increasing annoyance ---is to perhaps try an earlier driver release, upgrade the video bios, reinstall windows, or buy a new card to do something my old card claims it can do! 

any guidance would be greatly appreciated!  thanks in advance...

abit ic7 (latest bios release)
p4 2.6@3.2
corsair xms3200LL@5:4
geForce3 ti500

    Sorry, but you're wrong. It has everything to do with memory and what the hardware can handle. 1600 x 1200 x 32 takes up a lot more video memory than 1152 x 864 x 32. It also has to do with RAMDAC frequency. There are some video cards that have the memory to handle 1600 x1200 x32, but the the RAMDAC does not operate at the frequency to refresh that high. 

   If you understnad one thing undestand that the 2001FP was not designed to mesh with hardware that is from the last century.  

Im running on a regular geforce 3, and i cant get to 32, but on the monitor i used to have set up here, it would go to 32 in 1600 x 1200 perfectly fine...it was a much older dell flatscreen 17" crt.

If it is the graphics card, then no worries, i already ordered a new pc with a 9800 XT

You should be happy with the ATI 9800XT, let us know how it goes!