Mac mini M5 Pro review: powerful chip at $1,699, but pricey upgrades

The $1,699 Mac mini M5 Pro packs a 15-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24GB of memory at 307GB/s and three Thunderbolt 5 ports. Yet the $899 base M6 mini is faster in single-core and AI tasks, and memory and SSD upgrades quickly push the price toward the $2,499 Mac Studio.

• M5 Pro chip: 15-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24GB memory at 307GB/s
• Three Thunderbolt 5 ports versus Thunderbolt 4 on the base M6 mini
• 48GB memory upgrade costs $600, 64GB adds another $400
• Base 512GB SSD hits about 6,600MB/s, 1TB version reaches 10,800MB/s