Laptop & gaming are words that do not belong together.
If possible use cheap laptop for work/school/whatever the a cheap desktop (this could be a small form factor) with a decent video card.
I’d bet the cost wouldn’t be much different than a “gaming” laptop.
The problem is desktops are made for performance with no regard to portability, laptops are made to be portable and have good battery life. The two goals are opposite of each other.
@Sonikku see this link, you’d think the processors would have similar performance since the model numbers are so similar but they don’t have anywhere near similar performance
One is a designed for mobility cpu the other is not
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-8700K-vs-Intel-Core-i7-8550U/3937vsm320742