Yesterday's Mac Studio with M5 Max announcement brought a pleasant surprise: the starting price is unchanged from the M4 Max Mac Studio, at $2,499. However, a hidden upgrade cost lurks for those wanting more GPU power.

The base configuration offers an 18-core CPU with a 32-core GPU. Apple clearly displays a $300 upgrade to a 40-core GPU, but selecting this option also forces a memory change from 32GB to 48GB, costing an additional $300. Since you cannot upgrade the GPU without also upgrading the memory, the true cost is $600 — twice what is initially indicated.

The hidden cost caught out John Gruber when he tried to summarise the costs of each new configuration. Apple does advise users of the change in a slightly opaque way: "Based on your new selection, other parts of your configuration have been updated. Please review the changes."

Were you tempted by the updated Mac Mini or Mac Studio models?