diff --git a/live/operator-session/clawdie-live-gpu b/live/operator-session/clawdie-live-gpu
index 2970afc9..8fadde79 100644
--- a/live/operator-session/clawdie-live-gpu
+++ b/live/operator-session/clawdie-live-gpu
@@ -44,32 +44,39 @@ clawdie_live_gpu_nvidia_device_id()
     _block=$(clawdie_live_gpu_nvidia_block "$1")
     [ -n "$_block" ] || return 1
 
-    echo "$_block" | grep -Eo 'chip=0x10de[0-9a-fA-F]+' | head -1 | cut -c11-14
+    # FreeBSD pciconf chip field is chip=0x<device><vendor>. NVIDIA's vendor id
+    # 0x10de sits in the LOW 16 bits, so the device id is the 4 hex digits BEFORE
+    # it (e.g. chip=0x1c8c10de -> device id 1c8c). The earlier "chip=0x10de..."
+    # form read the vendor half and never matched.
+    echo "$_block" | grep -Eo 'chip=0x[0-9a-fA-F]{4}10de' | head -1 |
+        sed 's/^chip=0x//; s/10de$//'
 }
 
+# Map an NVIDIA PCI device id (4 hex digits) to the recommended driver branch.
+# Returns labels in the build's lane vocabulary {390, 470, 590} so the value can
+# be compared directly with clawdie_live_gpu_nvidia_branch staged from build.sh.
+# (The "590" lane installs the current nvidia-driver-580 package.)
+#
+# Coarse architecture heuristic by device-id range (validate against real
+# hardware; refine the boundaries as needed):
+#   Fermi    (       < 0x0f00) -> 390
+#   Kepler   (0x0f00 .. 0x12ff) -> 470
+#   Maxwell+ (      >= 0x1300) -> 590  (current: Maxwell/Pascal/Turing/Ampere/Ada/...)
+# Unknown/empty -> 590, the safest default for modern unknown hardware.
 clawdie_live_gpu_nvidia_branch_for_device()
 {
     _device_id="$1"
-    [ -n "$_device_id" ] || return 1
+    [ -n "$_device_id" ] || { echo "590"; return 0; }
 
     _device_num=$(printf '%d' "0x$_device_id" 2>/dev/null || echo "0")
 
-    if [ "$_device_num" -ge 8288 ]; then
-        echo "590"
-        return 0
+    if [ "$_device_num" -ge 4864 ]; then
+        echo "590"        # >= 0x1300  Maxwell, Pascal, Turing, Ampere, Ada, ...
+    elif [ "$_device_num" -ge 3840 ]; then
+        echo "470"        # 0x0f00 .. 0x12ff  Kepler
+    else
+        echo "390"        # < 0x0f00  Fermi
     fi
-
-    if [ "$_device_num" -ge 4928 ] && [ "$_device_num" -le 8582 ]; then
-        echo "470"
-        return 0
-    fi
-
-    if [ "$_device_num" -ge 4480 ] && [ "$_device_num" -le 5100 ]; then
-        echo "390"
-        return 0
-    fi
-
-    echo "590"
 }
 
 clawdie_live_gpu_has_pci_vendor()