Featuring some of the most jaw dropping visuals in a game on any platform, Crysis will not only be pushing the boundaries of all of the latest technologies like DX10, Nvidia's GeForce 8800 series GPUs and Intel's Core 2 CPUs, but will also be playable on gaming rigs up to 2-3 years old from the game's November 16, 2007 ship date.  Here are the minimum and recommended system requirements from Crytek and EA:

Minimum System Requirements: OS - Windows XP or Windows Vista, Processor - 2.8 GHz or faster (XP) or 3.2 GHz or faster* (Vista), Memory - 1.0 GB RAM (XP) or 1.5 GB RAM (Vista), Video Card -256 MB**, Hard Drive - 12GB, Sound Card - DirectX 9.0c compatible

* Supported Processors: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (3.2 GHz for Vista) or faster, Intel Core 2.0 GHz (2.2 GHz for Vista) or faster, AMD Athlon 2800+ (3200+ for Vista) or faster.

** Supported chipsets: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT or greater; ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (Radeon X800 Pro for Vista) or greater. Laptop versions of these chipsets may work but are not supported. Integrated chipsets are not supported. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required.

Recommended System Requirements: OS - Windows XP / Vista, Processor - Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.2GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ , Memory - 2.0 GB RAM
GPU - NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS/640 or similar

GS: What's more important to have for Crysis: A powerful CPU or a powerful video card?

CY: Actually they should be in sync. Low CPU and high GPU makes little sense, since the game might then become CPU-bound; likewise, if you have a strong CPU and low GPU, your game may not render fast enough. So you should align the generations of hardware when building your PC, in general. If you have a CPU and GPU both from the last 12 months, though, and you want to upgrade one of the components, then it should be the GPU.