I thought my Intel 2500k/Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3-B3 rig would pull the same amount of watts/amps regardless of the wattage rating of my PSU...
You were right in your thinking. The parts connecting to your PSU will always pull the same ammount of wattage, regardless of the efficiency of the PSU itself. However, you're measuring system draw at the socket and that's where PSU ratings come into play. Basically, there's always a certain amount of power lost inside of the PSU ( that's why they get warm as all that power becomes heat ).
Your AMD rig is certainly going to consume more power as Sandy Bridge is really good on power consumption.
Do you know what is really funny? I have two brand new Galaxy GTX 480 1.5 MB Super Overclocked GPU's and each one idles at 222 watts, and suck 425 watts at load. When I read that I decided to not use them! I'd have to work overtime just to pay my electrical bill!
Feel free to send these my way, I wouldn't mind the bill
. Seriously, though, the GTX 480 was a mighty disappointment when it was released. Probably the worst card of the GTX 400 series.
Yes certainly. Usually much more. Especially if you have them in SLI or crossfire configuration.
Not quite 100% true. Depends on the CPU/GPU configuration and eventual overclocking. With AMD Phenom CPUs, especially when overclocked, only the more powerful GPUs will exceed their power draw under 100% load. With SB, all except the low performance cards will be more power hungry.
In case of your AMD rig, Soar, your GPU and CPU should consume about similar amounts of power under load.