In trying to get to a deeper resolution I was adjusting the setting found at:
SYSTEM SETTINGS DISPLAY
Using that, I all I was changing was the resolution of the screen when not running Gnome or other window manager.
That didn't work so good.
Further clicking around led me to this menu setting:
PREFERENCES SCREEN RESOLUTION
That allowed me to set things to 1600x1200 and made life much nicer!
Thanks for the feedback