I see. Yes, when you put it that way it does stand out. The resolution it's reporting is its native resolution. I'm not sure if it's related to the distortion or not, but it is strange. Was this output taken while mirroring or extending, and is the output different when taken in the other case?
There's a kernel argument "nomodeset" that (if I'm understanding correctly) causes a system to load video drivers later in the boot process, using only BIOS video modes until X Windows is loaded. I'd be curious if that changed anything in your case, but I'll admit that I've never used nomodeset and am not an expert by any means.
If you want to try it, there's a how-to here: [HOW TO] add a grub parameter.
I wouldn't fault you any for waiting for someone more experienced to chime in on whether or not I'm barking up the wrong tree here, but it should be a safe change to make and revert if unhelpful.