jpeg saving quality problem

I am trying to save a psd picture 125x500 picture. It is a simple gradient with nothing else in the picture. The psd saves with good quality. As soon as I save for web or even save as a jpeg or gif the quality is junky. Even with the jpeg file at maximum and not optiized there are chunky vertical lines. How can I fix this? The psd file is like 138k, but I can't save it more than 12k as a jpeg or gif. Thanks for your help!

is the psd file at 72 dpi or higher? I can't imagine this isn't just a problem with your settings. when you save for the web as a jpeg, what are all your settings?

72dpi. 125x500px. Here's the screen shot. of course the newly created picture shows a nice smooth gradient, but this is what it looks like with these maximum sfw settings. Optimized checked or not makes no real difference. I have also tried about every combination of settings for gif as well. Thanks!

that's so weird, i can not replicate that. i even tried setting my iterpolation to nearest neighbor.

sucks.