http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11585
--- Comment #5 from Dmitry Timoshkov dmitry@codeweavers.com 2008-02-14 23:22:10 --- (In reply to comment #4)
The actually programs do not take up much space but a strange side effect is that the cache memory size jumps up by up to 20%. After a few programs/games being run the cache takes up the whole memory and the computer slows to nothing. However the actual programs do not take up much memory
Sounds like a kernel bug. Report it to your distro support channel.