What kind of graphics card do i need to be able to run minecraft?

Minecraft alone doesn't require a very advanced graphics card. I wouldn't spend more than £100 and I would go for an AMD card to save money.

If you were interested in other PC gaming then I would suggest buying Nvidia but for this purpose you would be largely wasting its resources.

You can pick up some good deals on Ebuyer.com from my own personal knowledge.

Not an expensive one, I run minecraft at 60+ FPS (With Optifine) with Intel HD 4000 Graphics. Focus on getting a good Processor and a lot of RAM.

Some say At least 1.4 Ghz of processor speed,
1GB of free hard drive space,
2GB RAM, Windows vista,
7 or XP and 256mb 512MB of video memory. You can get one like that for $20