diff --git a/packages/nixos/gpu.nix b/packages/nixos/gpu.nix
index f54051d3d..33c285bca 100644
--- a/packages/nixos/gpu.nix
+++ b/packages/nixos/gpu.nix
@@ -10,6 +10,68 @@
 
 let
   cfg = config.contrast.gpu;
+
+  nvidiaPackage =
+    (
+      (config.boot.kernelPackages.nvidiaPackages.mkDriver {
+        # TODO(msanft): Investigate why the latest version breaks
+        # GPU containers.
+        version = "550.90.07";
+        sha256_64bit = "sha256-Uaz1edWpiE9XOh0/Ui5/r6XnhB4iqc7AtLvq4xsLlzM=";
+        sha256_aarch64 = "sha256-uJa3auRlMHr8WyacQL2MyyeebqfT7K6VU0qR7LGXFXI=";
+        openSha256 = "sha256-VLmh7eH0xhEu/AK+Osb9vtqAFni+lx84P/bo4ZgCqj8=";
+        settingsSha256 = "sha256-sX9dHEp9zH9t3RWp727lLCeJLo8QRAGhVb8iN6eX49g=";
+        persistencedSha256 = "sha256-qe8e1Nxla7F0U88AbnOZm6cHxo57pnLCqtjdvOvq9jk=";
+      }).override
+      {
+        disable32Bit = true;
+      }
+    ).overrideAttrs
+      (oldAttrs: {
+        # We strip the driver package by its dependencies on desktop software like Wayland and X11.
+        # For server use-cases, we shouldn't need these. The Mesa (and thus Perl) and libGL dependencies are dropped
+        # too, as GPU workloads will likely be AI-related and not graphical. The libdrm dependency is dropped as well,
+        # as we're probably not going to be watching Netflix on the servers.
+        # Source: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/eac1633a086e8e109e00ce58c0b47721da1dbdfd/pkgs/os-specific/linux/nvidia-x11/generic.nix#L100C3-L114C6
+        libPath = lib.makeLibraryPath (
+          with pkgs;
+          [
+            zlib
+            stdenv.cc.cc
+            openssl
+            dbus # for nvidia-powerd
+          ]
+        );
+
+        # Hack to pass the "right" (i.e. the overridden) version of the nvidia driver to the persistenced.
+        # Looking at the package definition, it _should_ already do so, but it doesn't.
+        # So for now, override all occurences of `nvidia_x11` in the persistenced package "manually".
+        # We can't do an `override` on persistenced itself unfortunately, as it's call site doesn't allow this:
+        # https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/4d2418ebbfb107485b44aaa1b2909409322d9061/pkgs/os-specific/linux/nvidia-x11/generic.nix#L260
+        # TODO(msanft): Clarify with upstream why that is the case.
+        passthru = oldAttrs.passthru // {
+          persistenced = oldAttrs.passthru.persistenced.overrideAttrs (oldAttrs: {
+            inherit (nvidiaPackage) version makeFlags;
+            src = oldAttrs.src // {
+              rev = nvidiaPackage.version;
+            };
+
+            postFixup = ''
+              # Save a copy of persistenced for mounting in containers
+              mkdir $out/origBin
+              cp $out/{bin,origBin}/nvidia-persistenced
+              patchelf --set-interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 $out/origBin/nvidia-persistenced
+
+              patchelf --set-rpath "$(patchelf --print-rpath $out/bin/nvidia-persistenced):${nvidiaPackage}/lib" \
+                $out/bin/nvidia-persistenced
+            '';
+
+            meta = oldAttrs.meta // {
+              inherit (nvidiaPackage.meta) platforms;
+            };
+          });
+        };
+      });
 in
 
 {
@@ -20,26 +82,19 @@ in
   config = lib.mkIf cfg.enable {
     hardware.nvidia = {
       open = true;
-      package = lib.mkDefault (
-        config.boot.kernelPackages.nvidiaPackages.mkDriver {
-          # TODO: Investigate why the latest version breaks
-          # GPU containers.
-          version = "550.90.07";
-          sha256_64bit = "sha256-Uaz1edWpiE9XOh0/Ui5/r6XnhB4iqc7AtLvq4xsLlzM=";
-          sha256_aarch64 = "sha256-uJa3auRlMHr8WyacQL2MyyeebqfT7K6VU0qR7LGXFXI=";
-          openSha256 = "sha256-VLmh7eH0xhEu/AK+Osb9vtqAFni+lx84P/bo4ZgCqj8=";
-          settingsSha256 = "sha256-sX9dHEp9zH9t3RWp727lLCeJLo8QRAGhVb8iN6eX49g=";
-          persistencedSha256 = "sha256-qe8e1Nxla7F0U88AbnOZm6cHxo57pnLCqtjdvOvq9jk=";
-        }
-      );
+      package = nvidiaPackage;
       nvidiaPersistenced = true;
+      # Disable NVIDIA's GUI settings tool.
+      nvidiaSettings = false;
     };
-    hardware.graphics = {
-      enable = true;
-      enable32Bit = true;
-    };
+
     hardware.nvidia-container-toolkit.enable = true;
 
+    # Make NVIDIA the "default" graphics driver to replace Mesa,
+    # which saves us another Perl dependency.
+    hardware.graphics.package = nvidiaPackage;
+    hardware.graphics.package32 = nvidiaPackage;
+
     image.repart.partitions."10-root".contents."/usr/share/oci/hooks/prestart/nvidia-container-toolkit.sh".source =
       lib.getExe pkgs.nvidia-ctk-oci-hook;