The influence of the high-pump-field intensity saturation and dynamic Stark effects on the resonant nearly degenerate four-wave-mixing signal (3=21-2) is studied in a frequency space defined by the pump- and probe-field frequencies, 1 and 2, respectively. Variable inhomogeneous widths have been considered ranging from extremely narrow (homogeneous distribution) to extremely wide. Remarkable differences between nearly homogeneously broadened systems and extreme inhomogeneous ones are exhibited. It is shown, for the situation of homogeneous broadening, that the spectra carried on with fixed probe and fixed pump frequency values have substantial differences in shape. These differences disappear in the situation of extreme inhomogeneous broadening. Fixed-pump-frequency resonant and fixed-probe-frequency nonresonant spectra are proposed as very convenient tools to yield useful evidence about the width of the inhomogeneous molecular distribution. © 1993 The American Physical Society.