The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a CSI-RS transmission method, a network device, and user equipment, so as to resolve a technical problem that a waste of power is relatively severe when a CSI-RS is transmitted. In embodiments of the present invention, a CSI-RS is precoded, which is equivalent to that beamforming is performed on the CSI-RS, so as to align with user equipment as far as possible when the CSI-RS is transmitted, thereby reducing a loss of transmit power in an environment and improving utilization of transmit power.