Man buys $1,100 RTX 5070 Ti but opens box to find ‘water cooling’ instead

A Moscow gamer thought he was finally taking home a premium graphics card worth about $1,100. Instead, opening the sealed package revealed something nobody would expect. The expensive GPU had been replaced with a two-liter bottle of water, as per Dexerto.

Graphics cards have become one of the costliest PC components. Their high value also makes them an attractive target for scams. That reality became painfully clear after the buyer collected what appeared to be a factory-sealed Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Eagle OC Ice from Russian retailer Wildberries.

Fortunately, the customer decided not to leave anything to chance. He opened the package while still at the Wildberries pickup point and recorded the entire process. That decision may now become the strongest evidence if he pursues a refund.

That “water cooling” upgrade wasn’t exactly what he ordered

The buyer paid 90,000 rubles, or roughly $1,100, for the graphics card. Video of the unboxing shows a pickup-point employee handing over the package before the customer films the labels and removes the outer wrapping.

Everything looked genuine at first. The retail box appeared untouched. But when the lid came off there was no graphics card inside. Instead, the customer pulled out a large two-liter water bottle.

The bottle likely added enough weight to make the package seem legitimate. It remains unclear when the graphics card disappeared or who replaced it. The protective film could be reapplied, making the box appear unopened, according to Russian hardware outlet i2HARD.

Recording the entire unboxing could prove crucial. The footage starts before the package is opened and clearly shows the employee handing it over. That makes it much harder for anyone to claim the customer replaced the contents himself.

Unexpected shopping mishaps have also fueled other viral stories in recent months. In one case, a customer trying to buy a hot dog at a Circle K self-checkout watched an AI-powered register add an $8.5 billion charge to the total.

The purchase was especially expensive because Nvidia launched the RTX 5070 Ti with a starting price of $749. The Gigabyte version includes 16GB of GDDR7 memory and targets high-end gaming systems. That explains why this particular model carries a higher retail price.

Costly purchases have sparked other viral stories for unusual reasons as well. In another recent incident, a diner who spent $300 on a luxury steak in Las Vegas claimed a server took the meal away moments after it was served because of a common dining habit. 

There has been no confirmed update on whether Wildberries refunded this latest customer or identified where the graphics card was swapped. For now, the buyer is left with a very literal and wildly overpriced version of “water cooling.”