Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to methods and apparatus relating to intelligent resource assignment to increase throughput in LTE multiple input multiple output (MIMO) and carrier aggregation (CA) capable devices. In certain aspects, a MIMO and CA capable wireless communication device communicates with a base station (BS) on multiple component carriers (CCs) through multiple radio frequency (RF) chains. In such aspects, the device tentatively switches one or more first RF chains, not assigned to a first CC of the multiple CCs, to the first CC for evaluating a rank of the first CC. The device then determines that the first CC has a higher rank indication (RI) with the one or more RF chains. The device subsequently evaluates one or more performance factors, in conjunction with the higher rank, based on which the device then additionally assigns one or more second RF chains to the first CC.