In this paper we analyze the performance of different channel estimators under different antenna correlation conditions. This analysis is performed for various spatial multiplexing techniques considered in 3GPP Long term evolution (LTE) Release 8 (R8) using extensive simulations. By considering the LTE downlink system parameters and the LTE channel model, we measure the performance of channel estimators. Finally we present the performance of channel estimation on the performance of precoding in LTE systems.