Also tried on a ATI 4650 that was in a prebuilt HP, same problems

Have to love calling tech support and getting transfered to 10 (I counted) different people before getting hung up on.  Is there a Dell rep out there that can actually help someone without transfering?

You can try the following:

1. Open the NVIDIA control panel.
2. Unplug the monitor from the computer.
3. Plug the monitor back into the monitor.
4. Allow for detection.
5. Set resolution.

Some people have had luck with those steps for monitors stuck on low resolutions.

No dice, monitor still shows messed up image and thinks the resolution is 1280x1600.

Drivers are installed for the monitor, all that they contain are the color profiles anyways.  As per other thread, cable is dual link.

Hmm.

Long shot stab in the dark.  Did you try installing the monitor drivers in Windows 7? (I assume it is Windows 7)

Sounds like something goofy going on in Windows registry perhaps.

Actually - what does Device Manager say is the monitor installed?  Generic or U3011?

U3011 (Digital), makes no difference with the driver installed vs not installed.  As stated, issue is present on two different computers that are using different video cards (GTX 570 and ATI 4650)

What's really weird is the resolution - 1280 x 1600.  It isn't any "normal" resolution - it seems like either Windows is halving your horizontal, or something is compressing the output down.

Just a few dumb things:

1. Is the 1280 x 1600 reported by the monitor or Windows or both?
2. Have you tried the other DVI port?
3. On the ATI machine (sorry, that's all I have) - does the Catalyst software report the correct maximum resolution for the monitor?
   1. If so, have you tried changing some of the DVI settings there, like reduced frequency or alternate DVI mode?

 Windows shows that it is trying to output the correct resolutions, the monitor is displaying the 1280x1600. 

Tried both DVI ports on both the monitor and video cards

Tried all of the scaling, timing etc settings on both of the ATI and NVIDIA control panels, same outcome.  I should have a mini displayport  cable here today to test if they actually will go up to the full resolution