ABSTRACT Fast Fourier Transform is one of the most efficient methods of performing computation in Digital signal processing blocks. These computations are basically performed by the inherent floating-point multiplier units residing inside the butterfly units of any FFT. To optimise an FFT for higher efficiency and performance, it is inevitable to use highly efficient adder and multiplier units within the datapath architecture of a FFT processor. This work proposes high-performance FFT units designed using optimised Vedic multiplier units for DSP processor cores. Choice of Vedic multiplier decreases power and delay overheads of design which leads to production of an efficient FFT. A comparative analysis is presented for 24-bit Vedic multiplier using nine adder variants. A separate analysis of inherent adders is also done. Using the two best proposed Vedic multipliers, FFT units of 8, 16 and 64-point are designed respectively. The designed FFT units are compared for dynamic power, area and delay with existing designs and an analysis is presented. Power efficiency of nearly 25% and delay efficiency of around 50% is achieved with respect to the existing designs. The design is simulated on Virtex-7 FPGA using Verilog HDL.