Removing the PIC overhead

Winegcc by default compiles all files with the "-fpic" flag of GNU C. This is appropriate for files that are truly DLLs, but creates a significant overhead. You can improve the performance of your main "executable" by adding the flags "-fno-pic -fno-PIC" to your winegcc command line, however this should only be done for your main executable.

Using a better compiler

Intel's C++ compiler has a reputation for producing code that is up to 30% faster than GNU C, although version 4 of GCC has much better optimisation capabilities than any earlier version and is improving rapidly. Testing Intel C++ 9.1 (-O3) against GNU C++ 4.1.2 (-O3) resulted in only an 11% improvement in one real-world Winelib app in a CPU-bound context.