PostgreSQL Window Function ordering

partition over x the ordering is not working the way I expect

It is working perfectly fine. When you partition by x first 1 and last 1 are in the same group.

Window Functions:

The PARTITION BY list within OVER specifies dividing the rows into groups, or partitions, that share the same values of the PARTITION BY expression(s). For each row, the window function is computed across the rows that fall into the same partition as the current row.

To get result you want you could use (classic example of gaps and islands problem):

SELECT *, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY y) -
          ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY x ORDER BY y) + 1 AS group_id
FROM tab
ORDER BY group_id

LiveDemo

Output:

╔═══╦═══╦══════════╗
║ x ║ y ║ group_id ║
╠═══╬═══╬══════════╣
║ 1 ║ 1 ║        1 ║
║ 2 ║ 2 ║        2 ║
║ 2 ║ 3 ║        2 ║
║ 1 ║ 4 ║        3 ║
╚═══╩═══╩══════════╝

Warning:
This solution is not general.

EDIT:

More general solution is to utilize LAG to get previous value and windowed SUM:

WITH cte AS
(
  SELECT t1.x, t1.y, LAG(x) OVER(ORDER BY y) AS x_prev
  FROM tab t1
)
SELECT x,y, SUM( CASE WHEN x = COALESCE(x_prev,x) THEN 0 ELSE 1 END) 
            OVER(ORDER BY y) + 1 AS group_id
FROM cte
ORDER BY group_id;

LiveDemo2